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HEKO-MYTHS. 



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A STUDY IN THE NATIVE RELIGIONS 
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BY 

y 

DANIEL G. BRINTON M.D., 
/» 

MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PIIU.OSOI'HICAL SOCIETY; THE AMERICAN' 

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PEEFACE. XI 

larities to a much greater extent. But I have 
preferred to leave this for those who write upon 
general comparative mythology. Such parallel- 
isms, to reach satisfactory results, should be at- 
tempted only by those who have studied the 
Oriental religions in their original sources, and 
thus are not to be deceived by superficial resem- 
blances. 

The term " comparative mythology" reaches 
hardly far enough to cover all that I have aimed 
at. The professional mythologist thinks he has 
completed his task when he has traced a myth 
through its transformations in story and language 
back to the natural phenomena of which it was the 
expression. This external history is essential. 
But deeper than that lies the study of the influence 
of the myth on the individual and national mind, 
on the progress and destiny of those who believed 
it, in other words, its true- religious import. I 
have endeavored, also, to take some account of 
this. 

The usual statement is that tribes in the intellec- 
tual condition of those I am dealing with rest their 
religion on a worship of external phenomena. In 
contradiction to this, I advance various arguments 



Xn PREFACE. 



to show that their chief god was not identified with 
any objective natural process, but was human in 
nature, benignant in character, loved rather than 
feared, and that his worship carried with it the 
germs of the development of benevolent emotions 
and sound ethical principles. 
Media, Pa., OcL, 1882. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

I'ACK 

Some Kind of Religion Found anions all Men— Classifica- 
tions of Eeligions-The Purpose of Religions— Religions 
of Rite and of Creed— The Myth Grows in the First 
of these— Intent and Meaning of the Myth. . . - 1' 

Processes of Myth Building in America— Personification, 
Paronyms and Homonyms- Otosis-Polyonomy— He- 
notheism— Borrowing — Rhetorical Figures— Abstract 
Expressions— Esoteric Teachings. '. • • ' . • "^ 

Outlines of the Fundamental American Myth— The AVhite 
Culture-hero and the Four Brothers— Interpretation of 
the Myth— Comparison with the Aryan Hermes Myth— 
—With the Aryo-Semitic Cadmus Myth— With Osirian 
Myths-The Myth of the Virgin Mother— The Interpreta- 
tion thus Supported. • -'' 

CHAPTER n. 

THE HERO-GODS OF THE ALGONKINS AND IROQUOIS. 

§ 1. The Algonhin Myth of Michabo. 

The Myth of the Giant Rabbit-The Rabbit Creates the 
World-He Marries the Muskrat— Becomes the All- 
Father— Derivation of Michabo— of Wajashk, the Musk- 
rat— The Myth Explained— The Light-God as God of the 
East— The Four Divine Brothers— Myth of the Huaro- 
chiris— The Day-Makers— Michabo's Contests Avith His 
Father and Brother-Explanation of These-The Sym- 
bolic Flint Stone-Michabo Destroys the Serpent King- 
Meaning of this Myth -Relations of the Light-God and 
Wind-God-Michabo as God of Waters and Fertility- 
Represented as a Bearded Man 3 

xiii 



CONTENTS. 



§ 2. The Iroquois Myth of loskeha. page 

The Creation of tlie Earth— Tlie Miraculous Birth of los- 
keha — He Overcomes his Brother Tawiscara — Creates 
and Teaches Mankind — Visits his People— His Grand- 
mother Ataensic — loskelia as Father of liis Mother — 
Similar Conceptions in Egj'ptian Myths — Derivation of 
loskeha and Ataensic— loskeha as Tharonhiawakon, the 
Sky Supporter— His Brother Tawiscara or Tehotennhia- 
ron Identified — Similarity to Algonkin Myths. . . 53 

CHAPTER III. 

THE HERO-GOD OF THE AZTEC TRIBES. 

§ 1. The Tivo Antagonists. 

Tlie Contest of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca — Quetzal- 
coatl the Light-God— Derivation of His iSTame — Titles of 
Tezcatlipoca — Jdentitied with Darkness, Kight and 
Gloom 63 

§ 2. Quetzalcoatl the God. 

Myth of the Four Brothers — The Four Suns and the Ele- 
mental Conllict — Names of the Four Brothers. . . 73 

§ 3. Quetzaleofdl the Hero of Tula. 

Tula, the City of the Sun— Who were the Toltecs ?— Tlap- 
allanand Xalac— The Birth of tlie Hero God — His Virgin 
Mother Chimalmatl — His Miraculous Conception — 
Aztlan, the Land of Seven Caves, and Colhuacan, the 
Bended Mount— The Maid Xochitl and the Rose Garden 
of the Gods — Quetzalcoatl as the White and Bearded 
Stranger 82 

The Glory of the Lord of Tula— The Suhtlety of the Sorcerer 
Tezcatlipoca — The Magic Mirror and the Mystic Draught 
^— The Myth Explained — The Promise of Rejuvenation — 
TheToveyoand the Maiden — The Juggleries of Tezcatli- 
poca — Departure of Quetzalcoatl from Tula — Quetzalcoatl • 
at Cholula— His Death or Departure — The Celestial 
Game of Ball and Tiger Skin— (^)netzalcoatlas the Planet 
Venus 92 




K 



CONTENTS. XV 

§ 4. Quetzalcoatl as Lord of the Winds. vsc.y. 

The Lord of the Four Winds— His Symbols, the Wheel of 
the Winds, the Pentagon and the Cross— Close Relation 
to the Gods of Rain and Waters — Inventor of the Calen- 
dar—God of Fertility and Conception— Recommends 
Sexual Austerity— Phallic Symbols— God of Merchants — 
The Patron of Thieves— His Pictographic Representa- 
tions 120 

§ 5. The Return of Quetzalcoatl. 

His Expected Re-appearance — The Anxiety of Montezuma 
—His Address to Cortes— The General Expectation- 
Explanation of his Predicted Return 133 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE HERO-GODS OF THE MAYAS. 

Civilization of the Mayas— Whence it Originated — Dupli- 
cate Traditions . 143 

§ 1. The Culture Hero Itzanma. 

Itzarana as Ruler, Priest and Teacher — As Chief God and 
Creator of the World— Las Casas' Supposed Christ Myth 
— The Four Bacabs— Itzamna as Lord of the Winds and 
Rains — The Symbol of the Cross — As Lord of the Light 
and Day — Derivation of his Various N'ames . . . 146 

§ 2. The Culture Hero Kukulcan. 

Kuculcan as Connected with the Calendar — Meaning of 
the Name— The Myth of the Four Brothers — Kukulcau's 
Happy Rule and Miraculous Disai)pearance— Relation to 
Quetzalcoatl — Aztec and Maya Mythology — Kukulcan a 
Maya Divinity— The Expected Return of the Hero-god 
— The Maya Prophecies— Their Explanation. . . . 159 



XVI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE QQICHUA HERO-GOD VIRACOCHA. 

PAGE 

Yiracocha as the First Caiise— His name Ilia Ticci — Qqui- 
chua Prayers — Other Names aud Titles of Yiracocha— 
His "Worship a True Monotheism— The Myth of the Four 
Brothers— Myth of the Twin Brothers 169 

Yiracocha as Tunapa, He who Perfects — Yarious Incidents 
in His Life — Kelatiou to Manco Capac— He Disappears 
ill tlie West 182 

Yiracocha Rises from Lake Titicaca and Journeys to the 
West— Derivation of His Name — He was Represented as 
White and Bearded— The Myth of Con and Pachacamac 
— Contice Yiracocha — Prophecies of tlie Peruvian Seers 
The White Men Called Yiracochas— Similarities to Aztec 
Myths 180 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE EXTENSION AND INFLUENCE OF THE TYPICAL HERO- 
MYTH. 

Tlie Typical Myth found in many parts of the Continent — 
Difliculties in Tracing it — Religious Evolution in Amer- 
ica Similar to that in the Old World — Failure of Clirisii- 
anity in the Red Race 203 

The Culture Myth of the Tarascos of Mechoacan — That of 
the Kiclies of Guateniali — The Yotan Myth of the Tzen- 
dals of Chiapas — A Fragment of a Mixe Myth — Tlie 
Hero-God of the Muyscas of New Granada — Of the 
Tupi-Guaranay Stem of Paraguay and Brazil — Myths 
of the Dene of British America 208 

Sun Worship in America— Germs of Progress in Amer- 
ican Religions — Relation of Religion and Morality — 
The Liglit-God a Moral and Beneficent Creation— His 
Worsliip was Elevating— Moral Condition of Native 
Societies before Uie Conquest — Progress in the Definition 
of the Idea of God in Peru, Mexico and Yucatan — Erro- 
neous Statem'^nts about tlie Morals of the Natives — Evo- 
lution of their Ethical Principles 230 

Index, 241 



AMERICAN 

HEEO-MTTHS. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Some kind of Reijgiox found among all men— Ci-arsificatioxs of 
Religions — The Purpose of Religions — Religions of Rite and 
of Creed — The Myth Grows in the first of these — Intent and 
Meaning of the Myth. 

Processes of Myth-biilding in America — Personification. 
Paronyms and Homonyms — Otosis — Poly'onomy' — Henotheism — 
Borrowing — Rhetorical Figures — Abstract Expressions. 
Esoteric Teachings. 

Outlines of the Fundamental American Myth — The White Cul- 
ture-hero AND the Four Brotheks — Interpretation of the 
Myth — Comparison with the Aryan Hermes Myth — With the 
Aryo-Semitic Cadmus Myth — With Osirian Myths — The Myth 
OF the Virgin Mother — The Interpretation thus Supported. 

The time was, and that not so very long ago, when it 
was contended by some that there are tribes of men witli- 
out any sort of religion ; nowadays the effort is to show 
that the feeling wiiich prompts to it is common, even 
among brutes. 

This change of opinion has come about partly through 
an extension of the definition of religion. It is now held 
to mean any kind of belief in spiritual or extra-natural 
agencies. Some learned men say that we had better droj) 
the word "religion," lest we be misunderstood. They 
would rather use "daimonism," or "supernatural ism," or 

17 



18 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

other such new term ; but none of these seems to me so 
wide and so exactly significant of what I mean as 
"religion." 

All now agree that in this very broad sense some kind 
of religion exists in every human community/ 

Tlie attempt has often been made to classify these various 
faiths under some few general headings. The scheme of 
Augustc Comte still has supporters. He taught that man 
begins with fetichism, advances to polytheism, and at last 
rises to monotheism. More in vogue at present is the 
theory that the simplest and lowest form of religion is 
individual ; above it are the national religions ; and at the 
summit the universal or world religions. 

Comte's scheme has not borne examination. It is arti- 
ficial and sterile. Look at Christianity. It is the highest 
of all religions, but it is not monotheism. Look at Buddh- 
ism. In its pure form it is not even theism. The second 
classification is more fruitful for historical purposes. 

The psychologist, however, inquires as to the essence, 
the real purpose of religions. This has been differently 
defined by the two great schools of thought. 

All religions, says the idealist, are the efforts, poor or 
noble, conscious or blind, to develop the Idea of God in 
the soul of man. 

1 I suppose I am not going too far in saying " all agree ; " for I think 
that the latest study of this suijjeet, by Gustav Roskoff, disposes of Sir 
.lohn Liil)i>ock's doubts, as well as the crude statements of the author 
of Kraft nnd Slojf', and such like compilations. Gustav Roskoff, 
Das lieiujionswencn der Ruhcsten Naturvolker, Leipzig, 1880. 



THE ESSENCE OF TJELIGIOX. 19 

No; replies the rationalist, it is simply the effort of the 
human mind to frame a Theory of Things ; at first, reli- 
gion is an early system of natural philosophy; later it 
becomes moral philosophy. Explain the Universe by 
physical laws, point out that the orig-iu and aim of ethics 
are the relations of men, and we shall have no more 
religions, nor need any. 

The first answer is too intangible, the second too narrow. 
The rude savage does not philosophize on phenomena; the 
enlightened student sees in them but interacting forces ; 
yet both may be profoundly religious. Nor can morality 
be accepted as a criterion of religions. The bloody scenes 
in the Mexican teocalli were merciful compared with those 
in the torture rooms of the Inquisition. Yet the religion 
of Jesus was far above that of Huitzilopochtli. 

What I think is the essence, the principle of vitality, in 
religion, and in all religions, is their supposed control over 
the destiny of the individual, his weal or woe, his good or 
bad hap, here or hereafter, lus it may be. Rooted infinitely 
deep in the sense of personality, religion was recognized at 
the beginning, it will be recognized at the end, as the one 
indestructible ally in the struggle for individual existence. 
At heart, all prayers are for preservation, the burden of 
all litanies is a begging for Life. 

This end, these benefits, have been sought by the cults 
of the world through one of two theories. 

The one, that which characterizes the earliest and the 
drudest religions, teaches that man escapes dangers and 



20 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS, 

secures safety by the performance or avoidance of certain 
actions. He may credit this or that myth, lie may hold to 
one or many gods; this is unimportant; but he must not 
fail in the penance or the sacred dance, he must not touch 
that which is taboo, or he is in peril. The life of these 
cults is the Deed, their expression is the Itite. 

Higher religions discern the inefficacy of the mere Act, 
They rest their claim on Belief. They establish dogmas, 
the mental acceptance of which is the one thing needful. 
In them mythology passes into theology ; the act is mea- 
sured by its motive, the formula by the fiith back of it. 
Their life is the Creed. 

The Myth finds vigorous and congenial growth only in 
the first of these forms. There alone the imagination of 
the votary is free, there alone it is not fettered by a symbol 
already defined. 

To the student of religions the interest of the Myth is 
not that of an infantile attempt to philosophize, but as it 
illustrates the intimate and immediate relations which the 
religion in which it grew bore to the individual life. Thus 
examined, it reveals the inevitable destinies of men and of 
nations as bound up with their forms of worship. 

These general considerations appear to me to be needed 
for the proper understanding of the study I am about to 
make. It concerns itself with some of the religions which 
were developed on the American continent before its dis- 
covery. My object is to present from them a series of 
myths curiously similar in features, and to see if one simple 
and general explanation of them can be found. 



MYTH-BUILDING. 21 

The processes of myth-building; among American tribes 
were much the same as elsewhere. These are now too 
generally familiar to need specification here, beyond a few 
which I have found particularly noticeable. 

At the foundation of all myths lies the mental process of 
personification, which finds expression in the rhetorical 
figure of prosopopcia. The definition of this, however, 
must be extended from the mere representation of inani- 
mate things as animate, to include also the representation of 
irrational beings as rational, as in the " animal myths," a 
most common form of religious story among primitive 
people. 

Some languages favor these forms of personification much 
more than others, and most of the American languages do 
so in a marked manner, by the broad grammatical distinc- 
tions they draw between animate and inanimate objects, 
which distinctions must invariably be observed. They 
cannot say '* the boat moves " without specifying whether 
the boat is an animate object or not, or whether it is to be 
considered animate, for rhetorical purposes, at the time of 
s'peaking. 

The sounds of words have aided greatly in myth build- 
ing. Names and words which are somewhat alike in sound, 
paronyms, as they are called by grammarians, may be taken 
or mistaken one for the other. Again, many myths spring 
from homonymy, that is, the sameness in sound of words 
with difference in signification. Thus contl, in the Aztec 
tongue, is a word frequently appearing in the names of 



22 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

divinities. It has three entirely different meanings, to wit, 
a serpent, a guest and twins. Now, whichever one of 
these was originally meant, it would be quite certain to be 
misunderstood, more or le-s, by later generations, and myths 
would arise to explain the several possible interpretations of 
the word — as, in fact, we find was the case. 

Closely allied to this is what has been called otosis. This 
is the substitution of a familiar word for an archaic or 
foreitru one of similar sound but whollv diverse meaninsr. 
This is a very common occurrence and easily leads to myth 
making. For example, there is a cave, near Chattanooga, 
which has the Cherokee name Nik-a-jak. This the white 
settlers have transformed into Nigger Jack, and are prepared 
with a narrative of some runaway slave to explain the 
cognomen. It may also occur in the same language. In 
an Algonkin dialect m'ssi wahu means "the great light of 
the dawn ;" and a common large rabbit was called missabo ; 
at some period the precise meaning of the former words 
was lost, and a variety of interesting myths of the day- 
break were transferred to a sup[)osed huge rabbit ! Rarely 
does there occur a more striking example of how the 
deteriorations of language aifcct mythology. 

Aztlan, the mythical land whence the Aztec speaking- 
tribes were said to have come, and from which they 
derived their name, means "the place of whiteness;" but 
the word was similar to Aztatlan, which wduld mean "the 
place of herons," some spot where tliesc birds would love 
to congregate, from azlnti, the heron, and in after ages, this 



PROCESSES OF MYTH-BUILDING. 23 

latter, as the plainer and more concrete signification, came 
to prevail, and was adopted by the myth-makers. 

Polyonomy is another procedure often seen in these 
myths. A divinity has several or many titles; one or 
another of these becomes prominent, and at last obscures in 
a particular myth or locality the original personality of the 
hero of the tale. In America this is most obvious in Peru. 

Akin to this is what Prof. Max Miiller has termed 
henothelsm. In this mental process one god or one form 
of a god is exalted beyond all others, and even addressed 
as the one, only, absolute and supreme deity. Such ex- 
pressions are not to be construed literally as evidences of 
a monotheism, but simply that at that particular time 
the worshiper's mind was so filled with the power and 
majesty of the divinity to w^hom he appealed, that he 
applied to him these superlatives, very much as he would 
to a great ruler. The next day he might apply them to 
another deity, without any hypocrisy or sense of logical 
contradiction. Instances of this are common in the Aztec 
prayers which have been preserved. 

One difficulty encountered in Aryan mythology is ex- 
tremely rare in America, and that is, the adoption of for- 
eign names. A proper name without a definite concrete sig- 
nificance in the tongue of the peoj)le who used it is almost 
unexampled in the red race. A word without a meaning 
was something quite foreign to their mode of thought. One 
ofourmosteminentstudents^ hasjustly said : " Every Indian 

^ J. Hammond Trumbull, Oa the Composition of Indian Geo- 
graphical Names, p. 3 (Hartford, 1870). 



24 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

synthesis — names of persons and places not excepted — must 
preserve the consciousness of its roots, and must not only 
have a meaning, but be so framed as to convey that mean- 
ing- with precision, to all who speak the language to which 
it belongs." Hence, the names of their divinities can nearly 
always be interpreted, though for the reasons above given 
the most obvious and current interpretation is not in every 
case the correct one. 

As foreign names were not adopted, so the mythology 
of one tribe very rarely influenced that of another. As a 
rule, all the religions were tribal or national, and their 
votaries had no desire to extend them. There was little 
of the proselytizing spirit among the red race. Some ex- 
ceptions can be pointed out to this statement, in the Aztec 
and Peruvian monarchies. Some borrowing seems to have 
been done either by or from the Mayas; and the hero- 
myth of the Iroquois has so many of the lineaments of 
that of the Algonkins that it is difficult to believe that it 
was wholly independent of it. But, on the whole, the iden- 
tities often found in American myths are more justly 
attributable to a similarity of surroundings and impressions 
than to any other cause. 

Tiie diversity and intricacy of American mythology 
have been greatly fostered by the delight the more de- 
veloped nations took in rhetorical figures, in metaphor and 
simile, and in expressions of amplification and hyperbole. 
Those who imagine that there was a poverty of resources 
in these languages, or tliat their concrete form hemmed in 



ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONS. 25 

the mind from the study of the abstract, speak witliout 
knowledge. One has but to look at the inexhaustible 
synonymy of the Aztec, as it is set forth by Olmos or 
Sahagun, or at its power to render correctly the refine- 
ments of scholastic theology, to see how wide of the fact 
is any such opinion. And what is true of the Aztec, is 
not less so of the Qquichua and other tongues. 

I will give an example, where the English language 
itself falls short of the nicety of the Qquichua in hand- 
ling a metaphysical tenet. Cay in Qquichua expresses the 
real being of things, the essentia; as, runap caynin, the 
being of the human race, humanity in the abstract; but to 
convey the idea of actual being, the existentia as united to 
the essentia, we must add the prefix casoan, and thus have 
runap-cascan-caynin, which strictly means 'Hhe essence 
of being in general, as existent in humanity."^ I doubt if 
the dialect of German metaphysics itself, after all its elabo- 
ration, could produce in equal compass a term for this con- 
ception. In Qquichua, moreover, there Is nothing strained 
and nothing foreign in this example ; it is perfectly pure, 
and in thorough accord with the genius of the tongue. 

I take some pains to impress this fact, for it is an im- 
portant one in estimating the religious ideas of the race. 
We must not thiidv we have grounds for skepticism if we 
occasionally come across some that astonish us by their 

^ "El ser existente de boinbre, que es el modo de estar el primer 
ser que es la essentia que en Dios y los Angeles y el liombre es modo 
personal." Diego Gonzalez Holguin, Vocahvlario de la Lengva 
Qqichua, o del Inca ; sub voce, Carj. (Ciudad de los Reyes, 1G08.) 



2G AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

subtlety. Sucli are quite in keeping with the psychology 
and languages of the race we are studying. 

Yet, throughout America, as in most other parts of the 
world, the teaching of religious tenets was twofold, the 
one popular, the other for the initiated, an esoteric and an 
exoteric doctrine. A difference in dialect was assiduously 
cultivated, a sort of " sacred language " being employed to 
conceal while it conveyed the mysteries of faith. Some 
linguists think that these dialects are archaic forms of the 
language, the memory of which was retained in ceremonial 
observances; others maintain that they were simply affecta- 
tions of expression, and form a sort of slang, based on the 
every day language, and current among the initiated. I am 
inclined to the latter as th(i correct opinion, in many cases. 

Whichever it was, such a sacred dialect is found in almost 
all tribes. There arc fragments of it from the cultivated 
races of Mexico, Yucatan and Peru ; and at the other end 
of the scale we may instance the Guaymis, of Darien, 
naked savages, but whose " chiefs of the law," we are told, 
taught " the doctrines of their religion in a peculiar idiom, 
invented for the purpose, and very different from the com- 
mon language." 

This becomes an added difficulty in the analysis of myths, 
as not only were the names of the divinities and of localities 
expressed in terms in the highest degree metaphorical, but 

^ Frtuifo, Notirid de los Iiidios Guai/iiiics y de sits Cosiitmbres, p. 
20, in Piiiiut, Cokcciun de Liiujuistica y Etnografia Americana. 
Tom. IV. 



THE TYPICAL AMERICAN MYTH. 27 

they were at times obscured by an affected pronunciation, 
devised to conceal their exact deriv^ation. 

The native tribes of this Continent had many myths, 
and among them there was one which was so prominent, 
and recuri-ed with such strangely similar features in locali- 
ties widely asunder, that it has for years attracted my at- 
tention, and I have been led to present it as it occurs among 
several nations far apart, both geographically and in point 
of culture. This myth is that of the national hero, their 
mythit-al civilizer and teacher of the tribe, who, at the same 
time, was often identified with the supreme deity and the 
creator of the world. It is the fundamental myth of a very 
large number of American tribes, and on its recognition 
and interpretation depends the correct understanding of 
most of their mythology and religious life. 

The outlines of this legend are to the effect that in some 
exceedingly remote time this divinity took an active part 
in creating the world and in fitting it to be the abode of 
man, and may himself have formed or called forth the 
race. At any rate, his interest in its advancement was such 
that he personally appeared among the ancestors of the 
nation, and taught them the useful arts, gave them the 
maize or other food plants, initiated them into the mysteries 
of their religious rites, framed the laws which governed 
their social relations, and having thus started them on the 
road to self development, he left them, not suffering death, 
but disappearing in some way from their view. Hence it was 
nigh universally expected that at some time he would return. 



28 AMIJRICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

The circumstances attending the birth of these hero-gods 
have great similarity. As a rule, each is a twin or one of 
four brothers born at one birth ; very generally at the cost 
of their mother's life, who is a virgin, or at least had nev^er 
been impregnated by mortal man. The hero is apt to come 
into conflict with his brother, or one of his brothers, and the 
long and desperate struggle resulting, which often involved 
the universe in repeated destructions, constitutes one of 
the leading topics of the myth-makers. The duel is not 
generally — not at all, I believe, when we can get at the 
genuine native form of the myth — between a morally good 
and an evil spirit, though, undoubtedly, the one is more 
friendly and favorable to the welfare of man than the 
other. 

The better of the two, the true hero-god, is in the end 
triumphant, though the national temperament represented 
this variously. At any rate, his people are not deserted by 
him, and though absent, and perhaps for a while driven 
away by his potent adversary, he is sure to come back some 
time or other. 

The place of his birth is nearly always located in the 
East ; from that quarter he first came when he appeared as 
a man among men ; toward that jioint he returned when 
he disappeared; and there he still lives, awaiting the 
appointed time for his reappearance. 

Whenever the personal appearance of this hero-god is 
described, it is, strangely enough, represented to be that of 
one of the white race, a man of fair complexion, with long, 



THE LIGHT AS GOD. 29 

flowing beard, with abundant hair, and clothed in ample 
and loose robes. This extraordinary fact naturally suggests 
the gravest suspicion that these stories were made up 
after the whites had reached the American shores, and 
nearly all historians have summarily rejected their authen- 
ticity, on this account. But a most careful scrutiny of their 
sources positively refutes this opinion. There is irrefrag- 
able evidence that these myths and this ideal of the hero- 
god, were intimately known and widely current in 
America long before any one of its millions of inhabitants 
had ever seen a white man. Nor is there any difficulty in 
explaining this, when we divest these figures of the fanci- 
ful garbs in which they have been clothed by the religious 
imagination, and recognize what are the phenomena on 
which they are based, and the physical processes whose his- 
tories they embody. To show this I will offer, in the most 
concise terms, my interpretation of their main details. 

The most important of all things to life is Light. This 
the primitive savage felt, and, personifying it, he made 
Light his chief god. The beginning of the day served, by 
analogy, for the beginning of the world. Light comes be- 
fore the sun, brings it forth, creates it, as it were. Hence 
the Light-God is not the Sun-God, but his Antecedent and 
Creator. 

The light appears in the East, and thus defines that car- 
dinal point, and by it the others are located. These points, 
as indispensable guides to the wandering hordes, became, 
from earliest times, personified as important deities, and were 



30 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

identified with the winds that blew from them, as wind and 
rain gods. This explains the four brothers, who were no- 
thing else than the four cardinal points, and their mother, who 
dies in producing them, islhe eastern light, which issoon lost 
in the growing day. The East, as their leader, was also the 
supposed ruler of the winds, and thus god of the air and rain. 
As more immediately connected with the advent and depar- 
ture of light, the East and West are twins, the one of which 
sends forth the glorious day-orb, which the other lies in 
wait to conquer. Yet the light-god is not slain. Tiie sun 
shall rise again in undiminished glory, and he lives, though 
absent. 

By sight and light we see and learn. Nothing, there- 
fore, is more natural than to attribute to the light-god the 
early progress in the arts of domestic and social life. Thus 
light came to be personified as the embodiment of culture 
and knowledge, of wisdom, and of the peace and pros- 
perity which are necessary for the growth of learning. 

The fair complexion of these heroes is nothing but a 
reference to the white light of the dawn. Their ample 
hair and beard arc the rays of the sun that How from his 
radiant visage. Their loose and large robes typify the en- 
folding of the firmament by the light and the winds. 

This interpretation is nowise strained, but is simply that 
which, in Aryan mythology, is now universally accepted lor 
similar mythological creations. Thus, in the Greek Ph(rbus 
and Perseus, in the Teutonic liif, and in the Norse Baldur, 
we have also beneficent hero-gods, distinguished by their 



THE HERMES MYTH. 31 

fair complexion and ample golden locks. "Amongst the 
dark as well as amongst the fair races, amongst those who 
are marked by black hair and dark eyes, they exhibit the 
same unfailing type of blue-eyed heroes whose golden locks 
flow over their shoulders, and whose faces gleam as with 
the light of the new risen sun."^ 

Everywhere, too, the history of these heroes is that of a 
struggle against some potent enemy, some dark demon or 
dragon, but as often against some member of their own 
household, a brother or a father. 

The identification of the Light-God with the deity of the 
winds is also seen in Aryan mythology. Hermes, to the 
Greek, was the inventor of the alphabet, music, the cultiva- 
tion of the olive, weights and measures, and such humane 
arts. He was also the messenger of the gods, in other 
words, the breezes, the winds, the air in motion. His 
name Hermes, Hermeias, is but a transliteration of the 
Sanscrit Saramcyas, under which he appears in the Vedic 
songs, as the son of Sarama, the Dawn. Even his charac- 
ter as the master thief and patron saint of the light-fin- 
gered gentry, drawn from the way the winds and breezes 
penetrate every crack and cranny of the house, is abso- 
lutely repeated in the Mexican hero-god Quetzalcoatl, who 
was also the patron of thieves. I might carry the com- 
parison yet further, for as Sarameyas is derived from the 
root sar, to creep, whence serpo, serpent, the creeper, so 

^ Sir George W. Cox, An Introduction to the Science of Compara- 
tive Mythology and Folk-Lore, p. 17. 



32 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

the name Qiietzalcoatl can be accurately translated, " the 
wonderful serpent." In name, history and functions the 
parallelism is maintained tliroughout. 

Or we can find another familiar myth, partly Aryan, 
partly Semitic, where many of the same outlines present 
themselves. The Argive Thebans attributed the founding of 
their city and state to Cadnnis. He collected their ances- 
tors into a community, gave them laws, invented the alpha- 
bet of sixteen letters, taught them the art of smelting 
metals, established oracles, and introduced the Dyonisiac 
worship, or that of the reproductive principle. He subse- 
quently left them and lived for a time with other nations, 
and at last did not die, but was chano-cd into a dragon and 
carried by Zeus to Elysion. 

The birthplace of this culture hero was somewhere far to 
the eastward of Greece, somewhere in " the purple land " 
(Phoenicia) ; his mother was " the far gleaming one" (Tele- 
phassa); he was one of four children, and his sister was 
Europe, the Dawn, who was seized and carried -westward 
by Zeus, in the shape of a white bull. Cadmus seeks to 
recover her, and sets out, following the westward course of 
the sun. " There can be no rest until the lost one is found 
again. The sun must journey westward until he sees again 
the beautiful tints which greeted his eyes in the morning."^ 
Therefore Cadmus leaves the purple land to pursue his 
quest. It is one of toil and struggle. He has to fight the 
dragon offspring of Ares and the bands of armed men who 
^ Sir George W. Cox, Ibid., p. 76. 



THE CADMUS MYTH. 33 

spring from the dragon's teeth which were sown, tliat is, 
the clouds and gloom of the overcast sky. He conquers, 
and is rewarded, but does not recover his sister. 

When we find that the name Cadmus is simply the 
Semitic word hedcm, the east, and notice all this mythical 
entourage, we see that this legend is but a lightly veiled 
account of the local source and progress of the light of day, 
and of tlie advantages men derive from it, Cadmus brings 
the letters of the alphabet from the east to Greece, for the 
same reason that in ancient Maya myth Itzamna, " son of 
the mother of the morning," brought the hieroglyphs of 
the Maya script also from the east to Yucatan — because 
both represent the light by which we see and learn. 

Egyptian mythology offers quite as many analogies to 
support this interpretation of American myths as do the 
Aryan god-stories. 

The heavenly light impregnates the virgin from whom is 
born the sun-god, whose life is a long contest with his 
twin brother. The latter wins, but his victory is transient, 
for the light, though conquered and banished by the dark- 
ness, cannot be slain, and is sure to return with the dawn, 
to the great joy of the sons of men. This story the Egyp- 
tians delighted to repeat under numberless disguises. The 
groundwork and meaning are the same, whether the actors 
are Osiris, Isis and Set, Ptah, Hapi and the Virgin Cow, or 
the many other actors of this drama. There, too, among a 
brown race of men, the light-god was deemed to be not of 
their own hue, but "light colored, white or yellow," of 



34 AMERICAN HERO-MYTIIS. 

comely countenance, bright eyes and golden hair. Again, 
he is the one who invented the calendar, taught the arts, 
established the rituals, revealed the medical virtues of 
plants, recommended peace, and again was identified as one 
of the brothers of the cardinal points.^ 

The story of the virgin-mother points, in America as it 
did in the old world, to the notion of the dawn bringing 
forth the sun. It was one of the commonest niytlis in both 
continents, and in a period of human thought when mira- 
cles were supposed to be part of the order of things had in 
it nothing difficult of credence. The Peruvians, for in- 
stance, had large establishments where were kept in rigid 
seclusion the " virgins of the sun." Did one of these violate 
her vow of chastity, she and her fellow criminal were at 
once put to death ; but did she claim that the child she 
bore was of divine parentage, and the contrary could not 
be shown, then she was feted as a queen, and the product of 
her womb was classed among princes, as a son of the sun. 
So, in the inscription at Thebes, in the temple of the virgin 
goddess Mat, we read where she says of herself: "My 
garment no man has lifted up; the fruit that I have borne 
was begotten of the sun."" 

I do not venture too much in saying that it were easy to 
parallel every event in these American hero-myths, every 

1 See Dr. C. P. Ti(.'lc, Historij of the Egyptian Jieiir/ion, pp. 93, '.»5, 
99, ot al. 

■i^h.in; sye-.'trii." Proclus, quoted by Tide, iibi suiinl, p. 204, note. 



MYTHS ARE NOT HISTORY. oO 

phase of character of the personages they represent, with 
others drawn from Aryan and Egyptian legends long familiar 
to students, and which now are fully recognized as having 
in them nothing of the substance of history, but as pure 
creations of the religious imagination working on the pro- 
cesses of nature brought into relation to the hopes and fears 
of men. 

If this is so, is it not time that we dismiss, once for all, 
these American myths from the domain of historical tradi- 
tions? Why should we try to make a king of Itzamna, an 
enlightened ruler of Quetzalcoatl, a cultured nation of the 
Toltecs, when the proof is of the strongest, that every one 
of these is an absolutely baseless fiction of mythok)gy? 
Let it be understood, hereafter, that whoever uses these 
names in an historical sense betrays an ignorance of the sub- 
ject he handles, which, were it in the better known field of 
Aryan or Egyptian lore, would at once convict him of not 
meritino; the name of scholar. > 

In European history the day has passed when it Avas 
allo\vable to construct primitive chronicles out of fairy 
tales and nature myths. The science of comparative 
mythology has assigned to these venerable stories a 
different, though not less noble, interpretation. How 
much longer nuist we wait to see the same canons of 
criticism applied to the products of the religious fancy 
of the red race? 

Furthermore, if the myths of the American nations are 
shown to be capable of a consistent interpretation by the 



3<> AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

principles of comparative inythology, let it be recognized 
tliat they are neither to be discarded because they resemble 
some familiar to their European conquerors, nor does that 
similarity mean that they are historically derived, the 
one from the other. Each is an independent growth, but 
as each is the reflex in a common psychical nature of the 
same pheaomena,the same forms of expression were adopted 
to convey them. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE HERO-GODS OF THE ALG-ONKINS AND IROQUOIS. 

§ 1. The AlgonMii Myth of Michabo. 

The Myth of the Giant Rahbit— The Rabbit Creates the World 
— He Marries the Muskuat — Becomes the All-Father — Deriva- 
tion OF Michabo — of Wajashk, the Muskrat — The Myth Ex- 
plained — The Light-God as God of the East — The Four Divine 
Brothers — Myth of the Hitarochiris — The Day- Makers — Mi- 
chabo' s Contests with his Father and Brother — Explanation of 
these — The Symbolic Flint Stone — Michabo Destroys the Ser- 
pent King — Meaning of this Myth — Relations of the Light- God 
AND Wind-God — Michabo as God of Waters and Fertility — Rep- 
resented as a Bearded Man. 

^ § 2. The Iroquois Myth of loskeha. 

The Creation of the Earth — The Miraculous Birth of Ioskeha 
— He Overcomes his Brother, Tawiscara — Creates and Teaches 
Mankind — Visits his People — His Grandmother, Ataensic — 
Ioskeha as Father of his Mother — Similar Conceptions in 
Egyptian Myths — Derivation of Ioskeha and Ataensic — Ioskeha 

as ThARONHIAWAKON, THE SkY SUPPORTER — HiS BROTHER TaWIS- 
CARA OR TeHOTENNHIARON IDENTIFIED — SIMILARITY TO AlGONKIN 

Myths. 

Nearly all that vast area which lie.s between Hudson 
Bay and the Savannah river, and the Mississippi river 
and the Atlantic coast, was })eopled at the epoch of the 
discovery by the members of Iwo linguistic families — the 
Algonkins and the Iroquois. They were on about the same 
plane of culture, but differed much in temperament and 
radically in languao-e. Yet their relio;ious notions were 
not dissimilar. 



37 



4« AMERICAN IIERO-MYTIIS. 

§ 1. The AJgonkin Myth of Mkhabo. 

Among all the Algonkiii tribes whose myths have been 
preserved we find much is said about a certain Giant 
Rabbit, to whom all sorts of powers were attributed. He 
Avas the master of all animals ; he was the teacher who first 
instructed men in the arts of fishing and hunting; he 
imparted to the Algoukins the mysteries of their religious 
rites; he taught them picture writing and the interpretation 
of dreams ; nay, far more than that, he was the original 
ancestor, not only of their nation, but of the whole race 
of man, and, in fact, was none other than the primal 
Creator himself, who fashioned the earth and gave life to 
all that thereon is. 

Hearing all this said about such an ignoble and weak 
animal as the rabbit, no wonder that the early missionaries 
and travelers spoke of such fables with undisguised con- 
tempt, and never mentioned them without excuses for putting 
on record trivialities so utter. 

Yet it appears to me that under these seemingly weak 
stories lay a profound truth, the appreciation of which was 
lost in great measure to the natives themselves, but which 
can be shown to have been in its origin a noble myth, 
setting forth in not unworthy images the ceaseless and 
mighty rhythm of nature in tiie alternations of day and 
night, summer and winter, storm and sunshine. 

I shall (juote a few of these stories as toUl by early 
authorities, not adding anything to relieve their crude sim- 
plicity, and thou I will see whether, when submitted to the 



MYTH OF CrtEATION. 30 

test of linguistic analysis, this unpromising ore does not 
yield the pure gold of* genuine mythology. 

The beginning of things, according to the Ottawas and 
other northern Algonkins, was at a period when boundless 
waters covered the face of the earth. On this infinite 
ocean floated a raft, upon which were many species of ani- 
mals, the captain and chief of whom was Michabo, the Giant 
Rabbit. Tiiey ardently desired land on which to live, so 
this mighty rabbit ordered the beaver to dive and bring 
him up ever so little a piece of mud. The beaver obeyed, 
and remained down long, even so that he came up utterly 
exhausted, but reported that he had uot reached bottom. 
Then the Rabbit sent down the otter, but he also returned 
nearly dead and without success. Great was the disap- 
pointment of the company ou the raft, for what better divers 
had they than the beaver and the otter? 

In the midst of their distress the (female) muskrat came 
forward and announced her willingness to make the attempt. 
Her proposal was received with derision, but as poor help 
is better than none in an emergency, the Rabbit gave her 
permission, and down she dived. She too remained long, 
very long, a wliole day and night, and they gave her up for 
lost. But at length she floated to the surface, unconscious, 
her belly up, as if dead. They hastily hauled her on the 
raft antl examined her paws one by one. In the last one 
of the four they found a small speck of mud. Victory! 
That was all that was needed. Th6 muskrat was soon 
restored, and the Giant Rabbit, exerting his creative power, 



40 AMERICAN HP:R0-MYTHS. 

moulded the little fragment of soil, and as he moulded it, 
it grew and grew, into an island, into a mountain, into a 
country, into this great earth that we all dwell upon. As 
it grew the Rabbit walked round and round it, to see how 
big it was ; and the story added that he is not yet satisfied ; 
still he continues his journey and his labor, walking forever 
around and around the earth and ever increasing it more 
and more. 

The animals on the raft soon found homes on the new 
earth. But it had yet to be covered with forests, and men 
were not born. The Giant llabbit formed the trees by 
shooting his arrows into the soil, which became tree trunks, 
and, transfixing them with other arrows, these became 
branches ; and as for men, some said he formed them from 
the dead bodies of certain animals, which in time became 
the "totems" of the Algonkin tribes; but another and 
probably an older and truer story was that he married the 
muskrat which had been of such service to him, and from 
this union were born the ancestors of the various races of 
mankind which people the earth. 

Nor did he neglect the children he had thus brought into 
the world of his creation. Having closely studied how 
the spider spreads her web to catch flics, he invented the 
art of knitting nets for fish, and taught it to his descend- 
ants ; the })ieces of native copper found along the shores 
of Lake Superior he took from his treasure Iiouse inside 
the earth, where he sometimes lives. It is he who is the 
Master of Life, and if he appears in a dream to a person 



DERIV5VTI0N OF MICH ABO. 41 

in flatiger, it is a certain sign of a lucky escape. He con- 
fers fortune in the chase, and therefore the hunters invoke 
him, and offer him tobacco and other dainties, placing them 
in the clefts of rocks or on isolated boulders. Though 
called the Giaut Rabbit, he is always referred to as a jnan, 
a giant or demigod perhaps, but distinctly as of human 
nature, the mighty father or elder brother of the race.^ 

Such is the national myth of creation of the Algonkin 
tribes, as it has been handed down to us in fragments by 
those who first heard it. Has it any meaning? Is it more 
than the puerile fable of savages ? 

Let us see whether some of those unconscious tricks of 
speech to which I referred in the introductory chapter 
have not disfigiu-ed a true nature myth. Perhaps those 
common processes of language, personification and otosis, 
duly taken into account, will enable us to restore this 
narrative to its original sense. 

In the Algonkin tongue the word for Giant Rabbit is 
Missabos, compounded from mitchi or missi, great, large, 
and wabos, a rabbit. But there is a whole class of related 
words, referring to widely different perceptions, which sound 
very much like wabos. They are from a general root wab, 
which goes to form such words of related signification as 
ivabi, he sees, loaban, the east, \\\(i Orient, wabish, white, 

^ The writers from whom I have tiikcii lliiji myth are Nicolas Perrot. 
Mcmoire sur les Meurs, Coiistumes et Rdligion des Sauvac/es de 
V Am&ique Septenbioiiale, written by an intelligent hiyman who lived 
among the natives from 1665 to J699; and the varions Relations des 
Jesuites, especially for the years 1667 and 1670. 



42 AMERICAN HERO-MYTIIS. 

hidaban (hid-ioahan), the dawn, wdban, daylitiht, icasseia, 
the liji'ht, and many others. Here is where we are to look 
for the real meaning of the name 3Iisfiabos. It orioinally 
meant the (xreat Light, the Mighty Seer, the Orient, the 
Dawn — wli it'll you please, as all distinctly refer to the one 
original idea, the Bringer of Light and Sight, of knowledge 
and life. In time this meaning became obscured, and the 
idea of the rabbit, whose name was drawn probably from 
the same root, as in the northern winters its fur becomes 
white, was substituted, and so the myth of light degene- 
rated into an animal fable. 

I believe that a similar analysis will explain the part 
which the muskrat plays in the story. She it is who brings 
up the speck of mud from the bottom of the primal ocean, 
and from this speck the world is formed by him whom we 
now see ^]jlas the I^ord of the Light and the Day, and sub- 
sequently she becomes the mother of his sons. The word 
for muskrat in Algonkin is loajashk, the first letter of 
which often suffers elision, as in nin nod-ajashkwe, I hunt 
rauskrats. J>nt this is almost the word for mud, wet earth, 
soil, ajishki. There is no reasonable doubt but that here 
again otosis and personification came in and gave the 
form and name of an animal to the original simple 
statement. 

That statement was that from wet mud dried by the sun- 
light, the solid earth was formed ; and again, that this damp 
soil was warmed and fertilized by the sunlight, so that from 
it sprang organic life, even man himself, who in so many 



THE SACRED EAST. 43 

mythologies is " the earth born/' homo ab humo, homo 
chamaigenes} 

This, then, is the interpretation I hav'e to offer of* the cos- 
niogonieal myth of the Algonkins. Does some one o\)ject 
that it is too refined for those rude savages, or that it 
smacks too much of reminiscences of old-world teachings? 
My answer is that neither the early travelers who wrote it 
down, nor probably the natives who told them, understood 
its meaning, and that not until it is here approached by 
modern methods of analysis, has it ever been explained. 
Therefore it is impossible to assign to it other than an in- 
digenous and spontaneous origin in some remote period of 
Algonkin tribal history. 

After the darkness of the night, man first learns his 
whereabouts by the light kindling in the Orient; wander- 
ing, as did the primitive man, through pathless forests, 
without a guide, the East became to him the first and most 
important of the fixed points in space; by it were located 
the West, the JN'orth, the South ; from it spread the wel- 
come dawn ; in it was born the glorious sun ; it was full of 
promise and of instruction ; hence it became to him the 
home of the gods of life and light and wisdom. 

As the four cardinal points are determined by fixed 

^ Mr. J. Hcammoiid Trumbull has pointed out that in Algonkin the 
words for father, osh, mother, okas, and eartli, ohke (Narraganset 
dialect), can all be derived, according to the regular rules of Algonkin 
grammar, from the same verbal root, signifying "to come out of, or 
from. ' ' ( Note to Roger Williams' Key into the Language of America, 
p. 56). Thus the earth was, in their language, the parent of the race, 
and what more natural than that it should become so in the myth also ? 



4-4 AMERICAN HERO MYTHS. 

physical relations, comiiion to man everywhere, and are 
closely associated with his daily tnotions and well being, 
they became prominent figures in almost all early myths, 
and were personified as divinities. The winds were classi-' 
fied as coming from them, and in many tongues the names 
of the cardinal points are the same as those of the winds 
that blow from them. The East, however, has, in regard 
to the others, a pre-eminence, for it is not merely the home 
of the east wind, but of the light and the dawn as well. 
Hence it attained a marked preponderance in the myths ; it 
was either the greatest, wisest and oldest of the four brothers, 
who, by personification, represented the cardinal points and 
the four winds, or else the Light-God was separated from 
the quadruplet and appears as a fifth personage governing 
the other four, and being, in fact, the supreme ruler of both 
the spiritual and human worlds. 

Such was the mental processes which took place in the 
Algonkin mind, and gave rise to two cycles of myths, the 
one representing Wabun or Michabo as one of four brotliers, 
whose names are those of the cardinal points, the second 
placing him above them all. 

The four brothers are prominent characters in Algonkin 
legend, and we shall find that they recur with extraordinary 
frequency in tlie mythology of all American nations. 
Indeed, I could easily point them out also in the early 
religious conceptions of Egypt and India, Greece and 
China, and many other old-world lands, but I leave these 
comparisons to those who wish to treat of the principles 
of general mythology. 



THE FOUR BROTHERS. 45 

According to the most generally received legend these 
fonr brothers were quadruplets — born at one birth — and 
their mother died in bringing them into life. Their names 
are given differently by the various tribes, but are usually 
identical with the four points of the compass, or something 
relating to them. Wabun the East, Kabun the West, 
Kabibonokka the North, and Shawano the South, are, in 
the ordinary language of the interpreters, the namfs ap- 
plied to them. Wabun was the chief and leader, and 
assigned to his brothers their various duties, especially to 
blow the winds. 

These were the primitive and chief divinities of the 
Algonkin race in all parts of the territory they inhabited. 
When, as early as 1610, Captain Argoll visited the tribes 
who then possessed the banks of the river Potomac, and 
inquired concerning their religion, they replied, "We have 
five gods in all; our chief god often appears to us in the 
form of a mighty great hare; the other four have no 
visible shape, but are indeed the four winds, which keep 
the four corners of the earth." ^ 

Here we see that Wabun, the East, was distinguished 
from Michabo (missi-wabun), and by a natural and trans- 
parent process, the eastern light being separated from the 
eastern wind, the original number four was increased to 
five. Precisely the same differentiation occurred, as I shall 
show, in Mexico, in the case of Quetzalcoatl, as shown in 
his Yoel, or Wheel of the Winds, which was his sacred 
pentagram. 

^ William Strachoy, Historic of Travaile into Virginia, p. 98. 



46 AMERICAN HERO-MYTUS. 

Or I will further illustrate this development by a 
myth of the Huurochiri Indians, of the coast of Peru. 
They related that in the beginning of things there were 
five esciTS on the mountain Condorcoto. In due course of 
time these eggs opened and from them came forth five fal- 
cons, who were none other than tiie Creator of all things, 
Pariacaca, and his brothers, the four winds. By their 
magic power they transformed themselves into men and 
went about the world performing miracles, and in time 
became the gods of that people.^ 

These striking similarities show with what singular 
uniformity the religious sense developes itself in localities 
the furthest asunder. 

Returning to Michabo, the duplicate nature thus assigned 
him as the Lio;ht-God, and also the God of the Winds and 
the storms and rains they bring, led to the production of 
two cycles of myths which present him in these two differ- 
ent aspects. In the one he is, as the god of light, the 
power that conquers the darkness, who brings warmth and 
sunlight to the earth and knowledge to men. He was the 
patron of hunters, as these require the light to guide them 
on their way, and must always direct their course by the 
cardinal points. 

The morning star, which at certain seasons heralds the 

dawn, was sacred to him, and its name in OJibway is Waha- 

^ Doctor Francisco do Avila, Narratirc of the Errors mid False 
Gods of the Indians of Huarovhiri (1008). This interesting doou- 
inent has l)ecn partly transhited by Mr. C. B. Markhaiii, and pul>- 
lisiied in one of tiie volumes of the llackluyt Society's series. 



THE BIRTH OF MICHABO. 47 

Tiaitg, from Waban, the east. The rays of light are his 
servants and messengers. Seated at the extreme east, " at 
the place where the earth is cut off," watching in his medi- 
cine lodge, or })assing his time fishing in thc^ endless ocean 
which on every side surrounds the land, Michabo sends 
forth these messengers, who, in the myth, are called Giji- 
gouai, which means " those who make the day," and they 
light the world. He is never identified witli the sun, nor 
Mas he supposed to dwell in it, but he is distinctly the 
impersonation ©flight.^ 

In one form of the myth he is the grandson of the Moon, 
his father is the West Wind, and his mother, a maiden who 
has been fecundated miraculously by tlie passing breeze, dies 
at the moment of giving him birth. But he did not need 
the fostering care of a parent, for he was born mighty of 
limb and with all knowledge that it is possible to attain. 
Immediately he attacked his father, and along and des- 
perate struggle took place. *' It began on the mountains. 
The West was forced to give ground. His son drove him 
across rivers and over mountains and lakes, and at last, he 
came to the brink of the world. ' Mold ! ' cried he, ' my 
son, you know my power, and that it is impossible to kill 

iSee H. R. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, Vol. v, pp. 418, 419. Re- 
lations dcs Jtsuites, 1634, p. 14, 1637, p. 46. 

^ In the Ojibwa}' dialect of the Algoiikins, the word for da)^, sky or 
heaven, is gijig. This same word as a verb means to be an a.dult, to 
be ripe (of fruits), to be finished, complete. Rev. Frederick Baraga, A 
Dictionary of the Olchipice Language, Cincinnati, 18-53. This seems 
to correspond with the statement in tlie myth. 



48 AMERICAX IIEKO-MYTHS. 

me.' " The combat ceased, the West acknowlcclirui"; the 
supremacy of his mighty son.^ 

It is scarcely possible to err in recognizing under this 
thin veil of imagery a description of the daily struggle 
between light and darkness, day and night. The maiden is 
the dawn from whose virgin womb rises the sun in the 
fullness of his glory and might, but with his advent the 
dawn itself disappears and dies. The battle lasts all day, 
beginning when the earliest rays gild the mountain tops, 
and continues until the AVest is driven to the edsre 

o 

of the Avorld. As the evening precedes the morning, 
so the West, by a figure of speech, may be said to fertilize the 
Dawn. 

In another form of the story the West was typified as a 
flint stone, and the twin brother of Michabo. The feud 
between them was bitter, and the contest long and dreadful. 
The face of the land was seamed and torn by the wrestling 
of the mighty combatants, and the Indians pointed out the 
huge boulders on the prairies as the weapons hurled at 
each other by the enraged brothers. At length Michabo 
mastered his fellow twin and broke him into pieces. He 
scattered the fragments over the earth, and from them 
grew fruitful vines. 

A myth which, like this, introduces the flint stone as in 

some way connected with the early creative forces of nature, 

recurs at other localities on the American continent very 

remote from the home of the Algonkins. In the calendar 

^ H. R. Schoolcraft, Al(/ic Researches, vol. i, pp. 135, ot seq. 



THE FLINT-STONE. 49 

of the Aztecs the day and god Tecpatl, the Flint-Stone, 
held a prominent position. According to their myths snch 
a stone fell from heaven at the beginning of things and 
broke into sixteen hundred j)ieces, each of which became a 
god. The Hiin-pic-tok, Eight Thousand Flints, of the 
Mayas, and the Toh of the Kiches, point to the same asso- 
ciation.^ 

Probably the association of. ideas was not with the flint 
as a fire-stone, though the fact that a piece of flint struck 
with a nodule of pyrites will emit a spark was not un- 
known. But the flint was every where employed for arrow 
and lance heads. The flashes of light, the lightning, any- 
thing that darted swiftly aud struck violently, was com- 
pared to tne hurtling arrow or the whizzing lance. Espe- 
cially did this apply to the phenomenon of the lightning. 
The belief that a stone is shot from the sky with each 
thunderclap is shown in our word "thunderbolt," and even 
yet the vulgar in many countries point out certain forms of 
stones as derived from this source. As the refreshing rain 
which accompanies the thunder gust instills new life into 
vegetation, and covers the ground parched by summer 
droughts with leaves and grass, so the statement in the 
myth that the fragments of the flint-stone grew into fruit- 
ful vines is an obvious figure of speech which at first 
expressed the fertilizing effects of the summer showers. 

In this myth Michabo, the Light-God, was represented 

^Brasseur de Bourbourg, Dissertation sur les Mythes de V Antiquite 
Aniericaine, ?, vii. 

4 



50 AMERICAN HER0-:MYTPIS. 

to the native mind as still fighting with the powers of 
Darkness, not now the darkness of night, but that of the 
heavy and gloomy clouds which roll up the sky and blind 
the eye of day. His weapons are the lightning and the 
thunderbolt, and the victory he achieves is turned to the 
ffood of the world he has created. 

This is still more clearly set forth in an Ojibway myth. 
It relates that in early days there was a mighty serpent, 
king of all serpents, whose home was in the Great Lakes. 
Increasing the waters by his magic powers, he began to 
flood the land, and threatened its total submergence. Then 
Michabo rose from his couch at the sun-rising, attacked 
the huge reptile and slew it by a cast of his dart. He 
stripped it of its skin, and clothing himself in this trophy 
of conquest, drove all the other serpents to the south.^ As 
it is in the south that, in the country -of the Ojibways, the 
lightning is last seen in the autumn, and as the Algonkins, 
both in their language and pictography, were accustomed to 
assimilate the liy;htning in its zigzio; course to the sinuous 
motion of the serpent,^ the meteorological character of this 
myth is very manifest. 

^ H. R. Sclioolcraft, Algic Researches, Vol. i, p. 179, Vol. ii, 
p. 117. Tho word ammikUj in Ojibway means " it thunders and light- 
nings;" in their myths this tribe says that the West Wind is created 
by Animiki, the Thunder. (Ibid. Indian Tribes, Vol. v, p. 420.) 

2 When Father Buteux was among the Algonkins, in 1637, they ex- 
plained to him the lightning as "a great serpent which the Manito 
vomits up." {Relation de la Nonvelle France, An. 1637, p. 53.) 
According to John Tanner, the symbol for the lightning in Ojibwa}' 
pictography was a rattlesnake. {Xarralive, p. 351.) 



TEANSFOEMATIONS OF DEITIES. 51 

Thus we see that Michabo,- the hero-god of the Algon- 
kins, was both tlie god of light and day, of the winds and 
rains, and the creator, instructor and teacher of mankind. 
The derivation of his name shows unmistakably that the 
earliest form under which he was a mythological existence 
was as tlie light-god. Later he became more familiar as 
god of the winds and storms, the hero of the celestial Avar- 
fare of the air-currents. 

This is precisely the same change which we are enabled 
to trace in the early transformations of Aryan religion. 
There, also, the older god of the sky and light, Dy^lus, once 
common to all members of the Indo-European family, 
gave way to the more active deities, Indra, Zeus and Odin, 
divinities of the storm and the wind, but which, after all, 
are merely other aspects of the ancient deity, and occupied 
his place to the religious sense.^ It is essential, for the 
comprehension of early mythology, to understand this two- 
fold character, and to appreciate how naturally the one 
merges into and springs out of the other. 

^ This transformation is well set forth in Mr. Charles Francis Keary's 
Outlines of Primitive Belief Among the Indo-European Races (London, 
1882), chaps, iv, vii. He observes: "The wind is a far more physical 
and less abstract conception than the sky or heaven ; it is also a more 
variable phenomenon ; and by reason of both these recommendations 
the wind-god superseded the older DySus. * * * Just as the chief 
god of Greece, having descended to be a divinity of storm, was not 
content to remain only that, but grew again to some likeness of the 
older Dyaus, so Odhinn came to absorb almost all the qualities which 
belong of right to a higher god. Yet he did this without putting off his 
proper nature. He was the heaven as well as the wind ; he was the 
All-father, embracing all the earth and looking down upon mankind." 



52 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

In almost every known religion the bird is taken as a 
symbol of the sky, the clouds and the winds. It is not 
surprising, therefore, to find that by the Algonkins birds 
were considered, especially singing birds, as peculiarly 
sacred to Michabo. He was their father and protector. 
He himself sent forth the east wind from his home at the 
sun-rising; but he appointed an owl to create the north 
wind, which l)lows from the realms of darkness and cold ; 
while that which is wafted from the sunny south is sent by 
the butterfly.^ 

Michabo was thus at times the god of light, at others of 
the winds, and as these are the rain-bringers, he was also at 
times spoken of as the god of waters. He was said to have 
scooped out the basins of the lakes and to have built the 
cataracts in the riv^ers, so that there should be fish preserves 
and beaver dams.^ 

In his capacity. as teacher and instructor, it was he who 
had pointed out to the ancestors of the Indians the roots 
and plants which are fit for food, and which are of value 
as medicine ; lie gave them fire, and recommended them 
never to allow it to become wholly extinguished in their 
villages; the sacred rites of what is called the meday o\ 
ordinary religious ceremonial were defined and taught by 
him ; the maize was his gift, and the pleasant art of smok- 
ing was his invention.'' 

^ H, R. Schoolcraft, Algir Keftearches^ Vol. i, p. 21(i. Indian 
Trihi;s, Vol. v, p. 420. 

- "Michalion. le Dieu des Eaux," etc. Charli'voix, Journal His- 
toriijue, p. 2^1 (Paris, 1721). 

'.John Tanner, yarrative of Captivity and Adventure,]). :551. 
Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, Vol. v, p. 420, etc. 



THE BEARDED HERO. 53 

A curious addition to the story was told the early Swed- 
ish settlers on the river Delaware by the Algonkiu tribe 
which inhabited its shores. These related that their various 
arts of domestic life and the chase were taught them 
long ago by a venerable and eloquent man who came to 
them from a distance, and having instructed tliem in what 
was desirable for them to know, he departed, not to another 
region or by the natural course of death, but by ascending 
into the sky. They added that this ancient and beneficent 
teacher wore a long beard? We might suspect that this last 
trait was thought of after the bearded Europeans had been 
seen, did it not occur so often in myths elsewhere on the 
continent, and in relics of art finished long before the dis- 
covery, that another explanation must be found for it. 
What this is I shall discuss when I come to speak of tlie 
more Southern myths, whose heroes were often "white and 
bearded men from the East." 

§ 2. The Iroquois Myth of losJceha.^ 
The most ancient myth of the Iroquois represents this 
earth as covered with water, in which dwelt aquatic ani- 
mals and monsters of the deep. Far above it were tlie 

^ Thomas Canipanius (Holm), Description of the Province of New 
Sweden, beck iii, cli. xi. Campanius does not give the name of the 
hero-god, but there can be no doubt that it was the " Great Hare." 

^ The sources from which I draw the elements of the Iroquois hero- 
myth of loskeha are mainly the following : Relations de la Nouvelle 
France, 1636, 1640, 1671, etc. Sagard, Hisloire du Canada, pp. 451, 
452 (Paris, 1636) ; David Ciisick, Ancient Histori/ of the Six Nations, 
and manuscript material kindly furnished me by Horatio Hale, Esf^., 
who has made a thorough study of the Iroquois history and dialects. 



54 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

heavens, peopled by supernatural beings. At a certain 
time one of tiiese, a woman, by name Ataensic, threw her- 
self through a rift in the sky and fell toward the earth. 
What led her to this act was variously recorded. Some 
said that it w;is to recover her dog which had fallen through 
while chasing a bear. Others related that those who dwelt 
in the world above lived oif the fruit of a certain tree ; 
that the husband of Ataensic, being sick, dreamed that to 
restore him this tree must be cut down ; and that when 
Ataensic dealt it a blow with her stone axe, the tree sud- 
denly sank through the floor of the sky, and she precipi- 
tated herself after it. 

However the event occurred, she fell from heaven 
down to the primeval waters. There a turtle offered her 
his broad back as a resting-place until, from a little mud 
which was brougiit her, either by a frog, a beaver or some 
other animal, she, by magic power, formed dry land on 
which to reside. 

At the time she fell from the sky she was pregnant, and 
in due time was delivered of a daughter, whose name, un- 
fortunately, the legend docs not record. This daughter grew 
to womanhood and conceived without havino; seen a man, 
for none was as yet created. The product of her womb was 
twins, and even bcf(n*e birth one of them betrayed his rest- 
less and evil nature, by refusing to be born in the usual 
manner, but insisting on breaking through iiis parent's side 
(or armpit). He did so, but it cost his mother her life. 
Her body was buried, and from it sprang the various vege- 



THE TWIX BROTHERS. 55 

table productions which the new earth required to fit it for 
the habitation of man. From her head grew the pumpkin 
vine; from her breast, the maize ; fromher limbs, the beau 
and other useful esculents. 

Meanwhile the two brothers grew up. The one was 
named loskeha. He went about the earth, which at that 
time was arid and waterless, anil called forth the springs 
and lakes, and formed the sparkling brooks and broad 
rivers. But his brother, the troublesome Tawiscara, he 
whose obstinacy had caused their mother's death, created 
an immense frog which swallowed all the water and left the 
earth as dry as before. loskeha was informed of this by 
the partridge, and immediately set out for his brother's 
country, for they had divide<l the earth between them. 

Soon he came to the gigantic frog, and piercing it in the 
side (or armpit), the waters flowed out once more in their 
accustomed ways. Then it was revealed to loskeha by his 
mother's spirit that Tawiscara intended to slay him by 
treachery. Therefore, when the brothers met, as they soon 
did, it was evident that a mortal combat was to begin. 

Now, they were not men, but gods, whom it was impos- 
sible really to kill, nor even could either be seemingly slain, 
except by one particular substance, a secret which each had 
in his own keeping. As therefore a contest' with ordinary 
weapons would have been vain and unavailing, they agreed 
to tell each other what to each was the fatal implement of 
war. loskeha acknowledged that to him a branch of the 
wild rose (or, according to another version, a bag filled 



56 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

with maize) was more dangerous than anything else; 
and Tavviscara disclosed that the horn of a deer could alone 
reach his vital part. 

They laid off the lists, and Tawiscara, having the first 
chance, attacked his brother violently with a branch of the 
wild rose, and beat him till he lay as one dead ; but quickly 
reviving;, loskeha assaulted Tawiscara with the antler of a 
deer, and dealing him a blow in the side, the blood flowed 
from the wound in streams. The unlucky combatant fled 
from the field, hastening toward the west, and as he ran 
the drops of his blood which fell upon the earth turned into 
flint stonas. loskeha did not spare him, but hastening 
after, finally slew him. He did not, however, actually kill 
him, for, as I have said, these were beings who could not 
die; and, in fact, Tawiscara was merely driven from the 
earth and forced to reside in the far west, where he became 
ruler of the spirits of the dead. These go there to dwell 
when they leave the bodies behind them here. 

loskeha, returning, peaceably devoted himself to peo- 
pling the land. He opened a cave which existed in the 
earth and allowed to come forth from it all tlie varieties of 
animals with which the woods and prairies are peopled. In 
order that they might be more easily caught by men, he 
wounded everyone in the foot except the wolf, which dodged 
his blow; for that reason this beast is one of the most difficult 
to catch. He then formed men and gave them life, and 
instructed them in the art of making fire, which he himself 
had learned from the o-reat tortoise. Furthermore he tauy;ht 



THE KINDLY lOSKEHA. 57 

them how to raise maize, and it is, iu fact, loskeha himself 
who imparts fertility to the soil, and through his bounty 
and kindness the grain returns a hundred fold. 

Nor did they suppose that he was a distant, invisible, un- 
approachable god. No, he was ever at liaud with instruction 
and assistance. Was thereto be a failure in the harvest, he 
would be seen early in the season, thin with anxiety about 
his people, holding in his hand a blighted ear of corn. Did 
a hunter go out after game, he asked the aid of loskeha, 
who would put fat animals in the way, were he so minded. 
At their village festivals he was present and partook of 
the cheer. 

Once, in 1640, when the smallpox was desolating the 
villages of the Hurons, we are told by Father Lalemant 
that an Indian said there had appeared to him a beautiful 
youth, of imposing stature, and addressed him with these 
words: "Have no fear; I am the master of the earth, 
whom you Hurons adore under the name loskeha. The 
French wrongly call me Jesus, because they do not know 
me. It grieves me to see the pestilence that is destroying 
my people, and I come to teach you its cause and its rem- 
edy. Its cause is the presence of these stranoers ; and its 
remedy is to drive out these black robes (the missionaries), 
to drink of a certain water which I shall tell you of, and 
to hold a festival in my honor, which must be kept up all 
night, until the dawn of day." 

The home of loskeha is in the far East, at that part of 
the horizon where the sun rises. There he has his cabin. 



58 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

and there he dwells with his grandmother, the wise Ataen- 
sic. She is a woman of marvelous magical power, and is 
capable of assuming any shape she pleases. In her hands 
is the fate of all men's lives, and while loskeha looks after 
the things of life, it is she who appoints the time of death, 
and concerns herself with all that relates to the close of ex- 
istence. Hence she was feared, not exactly as a maleficent 
deity, but as one whose business is with what is most 
dreaded and gloomy. 

It was said that on a certain oceasion four bold young 
men determined to journey to the sun-rising and visit the 
great lo^keha. They reached his cabin and found him 
there alone. He received them affably and they con- 
versed pleasantly, but at a certain moment he bade them 
hide themselves for their life, as his grandmother was 
coming. They hastily concealed themselves, and immedi- 
ately Ataensic entered. Her magic insight had warned her 
of the presence of guests, and she had assumed the form of a 
beautiful girl, dressed in gay raiment, her neck and arms 
resplendent with collars and bracelets of wampum. She 
inquired for the guests, but loskeha, anxious to save them, 
dissembled, and replied that he knew not what she meant. 
She went forth to search for them, when he called them 
forth from their hiding place and bade them flee, and thus 
they escaped. 

It was said of loskeha that he acted the part of husband 
to his grandmother. In other words, the myth presents 
the germ of that conception which the priests of ancient 



THE SELF-RENEWIXG GOD. 59 

Eo:ypt endeavored to express when they taught that 
Osiris was " his own father and his own son," that he was 
the "self-generating one," even that he was " the father of 
liis own mother." These are grossly materialistic expres- 
sions, but they are perfectly clear to the student of myth- 
ology. They are meant to convey to the mind the self- 
renewing power of life in nature, which is exemplified in 
the sowing and the seeding, the winter and the summer, 
the dry and the rainy seasons, and especially the sunset and 
sunrise. They are echoes in the soul of man of the cease- 
less rhythm in the operations of nature, and they become the 
only guarantors of his hopes for immortal life.V 

Let us look at the names in the myth before us, for con- 
firmation of this. loskeha is in the Oneida dialect of the 
Iroquois an impersonal verbal form of the third person 
singular, and means literally, " it is about to grow white," 
that is, to become light, to dawn. Ataenslo is from the 
root anuea, water, and means literally, "she who is in the 
water."' Plainly expressed, the sense of the story is that 
the orb of light rises daily out of the boundless waters 

1 Such eiiithets were common, in the Egyptian religion, to most of the 
gods of fertility. Amun, called in some of the inscriptions " the soul 
of Osiris," derives his name from the root men, to impregnate, to 
beget. In the Karnak inscriptions he is also termed "the husband of 
his mother." This, too, was the favorite appellation of Chem, who 
was a form of Horos. See Dr. C. P. Tiele, History of the Egyptian 
Religion, pp. 124, 146, 149, 150, etc. 

2 I have analyzed these words in a note to another work, and need 
not repeat the matter here, the less so, as I am not aware that the 
etymology has been questioned. See Myths of the Nexo World, 2d 
Ed., p. 183, note. 



60 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

whicli are supposed to surround the land, preceded bv the 
dawn, whicli fades away as soon as the sun has risen. Each 
day the sun disappears in tliese waters, to rise again from 
them the succeeding morning. As the approach of the sun 
causes the dawn, it was merely a gross way of stating this 
to say that the solar god was the father of iiis own mother, 
the husband of his grandmother. 

The position of loskeha in mythology is also shown by 
tlie other name under which he was, perhaps, even more 
familiar to most of the Iroquois. This is Tharonhia- 
wakon, which is also a verbal form of the third person, with 
the dual sign, and literally means, "He holds (or holds up) 
the sky with his two arms."^ In otiier words, he is nearly 
allied to the ancient Aryan Dyaus, the Sky, the Heavens, 
especially the Sky in the daytime. 

The signification of the conflict with his twin brother is 
also clearly seen in the two names which the latter likewise 

^ A careful analj'sis of this name is given by Fatlier J. A. Cuoq, 
probably the best living authority on the Iroquois, in his Lexique de la 
Lanrjue Iroquoise, p. 180 (Montreal, 1882). Here also the Iroquois 
followed precisely the line of thought of the ancient Egyptians. Shu, 
in the religion of Heliopolis, represented the cosmic light and warmth, 
the quickening, creative [trinciple. It is he who, as it is stated in the 
inscripiions. "holds up the heavens," and he is depicted on the monu- 
ments as a man with uplifted arms who supports the vault of heaven, 
because it is the intermediate light that separates the earth from the 
sky. Shu was also god of the winds ; in a i)assage of the Book of the 
Dead, he is made to say : " I am Shu, who drives the winds onward to 
the confines of heaven, to the confines of the earth, even to the confines 
of space." Again, like loskeha, Shu is said to have begotten himself in 
the womb of his mother. Nu or Nun, who was, like Ataensic, the 
goddess of water, the heavenly ocean, the primal sea. Tieie, History 
of the Egyptian Religion, pj). 84-80. 



THE FLINT-STONE, AGAIN. 61 

bears in the legends. One of these is that which I have 
given, Taiciscara, which, there is little doubt, is allied to 
the root, tiokaras, it grows dark. The other is Tehotenn- 
hiaron, the root word of which is kannh'a, the flint stone. 
This name he received because, in his battle with his 
brother, the drops of blood which fell from his wounds 
were changed into flints.^ Here the flint had the same 
meaning which I have already pointed out in Algoukin 
myth, and we find, therefore, an absolute identity of mytho- 
logical conception and symbolism between the two nations. 

Could these myths have been historically identical ? It 
is hard to disbelieve it. Yet the nations were bitter 
enemies. Their languages are totally unlike. These 
same similarities present themselves over such wide areas 
and between nations so remote and of such different culture, 
that the theory of a parallelism of development is after all 
the more credible explanation. 

The impressions which natural occurrences make on 
minds of equal stages of culture are very much alike. 
The same thoughts are evoked, and the same expressions 
suggest themselves as appropriate to convey these thoughts 
in spoken language. This is often e^fhibited in the identity 
of expression between master-poets of the same generation, 
and between cotemporaneous thinkers in all branches of 
knowledge. Still more likely is it to occur in primitive 
and uncultivated conditions, where the most obvious forms 

^ Cuoq, Lexqiue de la Langue Iroquoise, p. 180, who gives a full 
analysis of the name. 



62 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

of expression arc at once adopted, and the resources of the 
mind are necessarily limited. This is a simple and reason- 
able explanation for the remarkable sameness which pre- 
vails in the mental products of the lower stages of civiliza- 
tion, and does away with the necessity of supposing a 
historic derivation one from the other or both from a 
common stock. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE HERO-OOD OF THE AZTEC TRIBES. 

'i 1. The Two Antagonists. 
TiiK Contest of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlu'oca— Quetzalcoatl 
THE Light-God — Derivation of his Name— Titles of Tezcat- 
LiPOCA — InENTiriEo -witu Darkness, Night and Gloom. 
^ 2. Quetzalcoatl the God. 
Myth of the Four Brothers— The Four Suns and the Ele- 
mental Conflict — Names of the Four Brothers. 
^ 3. Quetzalcoatl the Hero of Tula. 
Tula the City of the Sun — Who were the Toltecs? — Tlapallan 
and Xalac— The Birth op the Hero-God— His Virgin Mother, 
Chimalmatl — Hls Miraculous Conception— Aztlan, the Land 
of Seven Caves, and Colhuacan, the Bended Mount — The 
Maid Xochitl and the Rose Garden of the Gods— Quetzai-- 

COATL AS THE WhITE AND BeARDED StRANGER. 

The Glory of the Lord of Tula— The Subtlety of the Sor- 
cerer, Tezcati-ipoca — The Magic Mirror and the Mystic 
Draught— The Myth Explained— The Promise of Rejuvena- 
tion — The Toveyo and the Maiden— The Juggleries of Tez- 
CATLiPocA — Departure of Quetzalcoatl from Tula — Quetzal- 
coatl AT Cholula— His Death or Departure— The Celestial 
Game of Ball and Tiger Skin— Quetzalcoatl as the Planet 
Venus. 

§ 4. Quetzalcoatl as Lord of the Winds. 

The Lord of the Four Winds— His Symbols the Wheel of the 
Winds, the Pentagon and the Cross— Close Relation to the 
Gods of Rain and Waters — Inventor of the Calendar— God 
OF Fertility and Conception — Recommends Sexual Austerity 
—Phallic Symbols— God of Merchants— The Patron of 
Thiev-es- His Pictographic Representations. 
^ 5. The Return of Quetzalcoatl. 

His Expected Re-appearance— The Anxiety of Montezuma — 
His Address to Cortes— The General Expectation — Expla- 
nation of His Pkedicted Return. 

63 



64 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

I now turn from the wild hunting tribes who peopled 
the shores of the Great Lakes and the fastnesses of the 
northern forests to that cultivated race whose capital city was 
in the Valley of Mexico, and whose scattered colonies were 
found on the shores of both oceans from the mouths of the 
Rio Grande and the Gila, south, almost to the Isthmus of 
Panama. They are familiarly known as Aztecs or Mexi- 
cans, and the language common to them all was the 
Nahuatl, a word of their own, meaning " the pleasant 
sounding." 

Their mythology has been preserved in greater fullness 
than that of any other American peo{)le, and for this reason 
I am enabled to set forth in ampler detail the elements of 
their hero-myth, which, indeed, may be taken as the most 
perfect type of those I have collected in this volume. 
§ 1. The Two Antagonists. 

The culture hero of the Aztecs was Quetzalcoatl, and 
the leading drama, the central myth, in all the extensive 
and intricate theology of the Nahuatl speaking tribes was 
his long contest with Tezcatlijwca, " a contest," observes an 
eminent Mexican antiquary, " which came to be the main 
element in the Nahuatl religion and the cause of its modi- 
Hcations, and which materially influenced the destinies of 
that race from its earliest epochs to the time of its destruc- 
tion."' 

The exj)lanations which have been offered of this strug- 

' Alfredo Cliavero, La IHedra del Sol, in 'lie Armies del Museo 
Narional de Mexico, Tom. ii, p. 247. 



THE GOD OF THE EAST. 65 

gle have varied with the theories of the writers propounding 
them. It has been regarded as a simple historical fact; as 
a figure of speech to represent the struggle for supremacy 
between two races; as an astronomical statement referring 
to the relative positions of the planet Venus and the Moon ; 
as a conflict between Christianity, introduced by Saint 
Thomas, and the native heathenism; and as having other 
meanings not less unsatisfactory or absurd. 

Placing it side by side with other American hero-myths, 
we shall see that it presents essentially the same traits, and 
undoubtedly must be explained in the same manner. All 
of them are the transparent stories of a simple people, to 
express in intelligible terms the daily strugglc/that is ever 
going on between Day and Night, between Light and 
Darkness, between Storm and Sunshine. 

Like all the heroes of light, Quetzalcoatl is identified 
with the East. He is born there, and arrives from there, 
and hence Las Casas and others speak of him as from 
Yucatan, or as landing on the shores of the Mexican Gulf 
from some unknown land. His day of birth was that 
called Ce Acatl, One Reed, and by this name he is often 
known. But this sign is that of the East in Aztec 
symbolism.^ In a myth of the formation of the sun and 
moon, presented by Sahagun,'- a voluntary victim springs 
into the sacrificial fire that the gods have built. They know 
that he will rise as the sun, but they do not know in what 

^ Chavero, Anales del Museo Xacional de Mexico, Tom. ii, p. 14, 
243. 

^ Historia de las Cosas de Nueva Esparia, Lib. vii, cap. ii. 



66 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

part of the horizon tliat will be. Some look one way, some 
another, but Quetzalcoatl watches steadily the East, and is 
the first to see and welcome the Orb of Light. He is fair 
in complexion, with abundant hair and a full beard, 
bordering on the red,' as are all the dawn heroes, and 
like them he was an instructor in the arts, and favored 
peace and mild laws. 

His name is symbolic, and is capable of several equally 
fair renderings. The first part of it, quefzalli, means 
literally a large, handsome green feather, such as were very 
highly prized by the natives. Hence it came to mean, in 
an adjective sense, precious, beautiful, beloved, admirable. 
The bird from which these feathers were obtained was the 
quetzal-totofl {tototl, bird) and is called by ornithologists 
Trogon splendens. 

The latter part of the name, coatl, has in Aztec three 
entirely different meanings. It means a guest, also twins, 
and lastly, as a syncopated form of cohuatl, a serpent. 
Metaphorically, cohuatl meant something mysterious, and 
hence a supernatural being, a god. Thus Montezuma, 
when he built a temple in tire city of Mexico dedicated to 
the whole body of divinities, a regular Pantheon, named 
it Coatecalll, the House of the Serpent.'^- 

Through these various meanings a good defence can be 

^ "La barba longa eiitre cana y roja ; el cabello largo, rauy llano." 
Diego Duran, Historid, in Kingsborough, Vol. viii, j). ^(JO. 

2 " Coatocalli, qne quiere dccir el templo de la culchra, quo sin 
nietifora quiere decir templo de diversos dioses.^^ Duran, llistoria de 
las Indias de Nueva Espafia, cap. i.vni. 



MEANIXa OF QUETZALCOATL. 67 

made of several different translations of the name, and 
})robably it bore even to the natives different meanings at 
different times. I am inclined to believe that the original 
sense was that advocated by Becerra in the seventeenth 
century, and adopted by Veitia in the eighteenth, both 
competent Aztec scholars.^ Tliey translate Quetzalcoatl as 
" the admirable twin," and though their notion that this 
refers to Thomas Didymus, the ^Vpostle, does not meet my 
views, I believe they were right in their etymology. The 
reference is to the duplicate nature of the Light-God as 
seen in the setting and rising sun, the sun of to-day and 
yesterday, the same yet different. This has its parallels 
in many other mythologies.^ 

The correctness of this supposition seems to be sliown by 
a prevailing superstition among the Aztecs about twins, 
and which strikingly illustrates tlie uniformity of mytho- 
logical conceptions throughout the world. All readers are 
familiar with the twins Romulus and Remus in Roman 
story, one of whom was fated to destroy their grandfather 
Amulius ; with Edipus and Telephos, whose father Laios, 

^ Becerra, Felicidad dc Mejico, 1685, quoted in Veitia, Historia 
del Origen de las Geiites que poblaron la America Septentrional^ cap. 

XIX. 

-In the Egyptian '' Book of the Dead," Ra, the Sun-God, says, "1 
am a soul and its twins," or, "My soul is becoming two twins." 
" This means that the soul of the sun-god is one, but, now that it is 
born again, it divides into two principal forms. Ra was worshipped 
at An, under his two prominent manifestations, as Turn the primal 
god, or more definitely, god of the sun at evening, and as Harmachis, 
god of the new sun, the sun at dawn." Tiele, History of the Egyptian 
Religion, p. 80. 



08 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

was warned that his death would be by one of his children ; 
with Tlieseus and Peirithoos, the former destined to cause 
tiie suicide of his father Aigeus ; and with many more such 
myths. They can be traced, without room for doubt, back 
to simple expressions of the fact that the morning and the 
evening of the one day can only come when the previous 
day is past and gone ; expressed figuratively by the state- 
ment that any one day must destroy its predecessor. This 
led to the stories of " the fatal children," which we find so 
frequent in Aryan mythology.' 

The Aztecs Avere a coarse and bloody race, and carried 
out their superstitions without remorse. Based, no doubt, 
on this mythical expression of a natural occurrence, they 
had the belief that if twins were allowed to live, one or the 
other of them would kill and eat his father or mother ; 
therefore, it was their custom when such were brought into 
the world to destroy one of them. - 

We sliall see that, as in Algonkin story INIichabo strove 
to slay his father, the West Wind, so Quetzalcoatl was in 
constant warfare with his father, Tezcatlipoca-Caraaxtli, 
the Spirit of Darkness. The effect of this oft-repeated 
myth on the minds of the superstitious natives was to lead 
them to the brutal child murder I have mentioned. 

It was, however, natural that the more ordinary meaning, 
''the feathered or bird-serpent," should become popular, 

^ Sir George W. Cox, The Science of Comparative Mythology and 
Folk Lore, pp. 14, 83, 130, etc. 

2 Geronimo de Mendietu, Uistoria Eclesiasiica Indiana. Lib. ii, 
cap. xi.\. 



THE GOD TEZCATLIPOCA. 69 

iind in the picture writing some combination of the serpent 
with feathers or other part of a bird was often employed as 
the rebus of the name Quetzalcoatl. 

He was also known by other names, as, like all the 
prominent gods in early mythologies, he had various titles 
according to the special attribute or function wliich was 
upi)ermost in the mind of the worshipper. One of these 
was Papachlic, He of the Flowing Locks, a word which 
the Spaniards shortened to Papa, and thought was akin to 
•their title of the Pope. It is, however, a pure Nahuatl 
word,^ and refers to the abundant hair with which he was 
always credited, and which, like his ample beard, was, in 
fact, the symbol of the sun's rays, the aureole or glory of 
light which surrounded his face. 

His fair complexion was, as usual, significant of light. 
This association of ideas was so familiar among the Mexicans 
that at the time of an eclipse of the sun they sought out 
the whitest men and women they could find, and sacrificed 
them, in order to pacify the sun. - 

His opponent, Tezcatlipoca, was the most sublime figure 
in the Aztec Pantheon. He towered above all other gods, 
as did Jove in Olympus. He was appealed to as the creator 
of heaven and earth, as present in every place, as the sole 
ruler of the world, as invisible and omniscient. 

The numerous titles by which he was addressed illustrate 

^ ^^ Papachtic, gnedejndo; Paj}achtli, gnQ(]eja o vedija cle capellos, 
de otra eosa assi." Molina, Vocabrdario de la Lengua Mexicana. 
sub voce. Juan de To))ar, in Kingsborough, Vol. viii, p. 259, note. 

2 Mendieta, Historia Edesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. xvi. 



70 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

the voneration in wliicli lie was held. His most common 
name in prayers was Titlacauan, We are his Slaves. As 
believed to be eternally young, he was Telpochtll, the 
Yotith ; as potent and unpersuadable, he was Moyocoyatzin, 
the Determined Doer ;' as exacting in worship, Monenegui, 
He who Demands Prayers; as the master of the race, 
Teyocoyani, Creator of ]\Ien, and Teimatini, Disposer of 
Men. As he was jealous and terrible, the god who visited 
on men plagues, and famines, and loathsome diseases, the 
dreadful deity who incited wars and fomented discord, he 
was named Yaotzin, the Arch Enemy, Yaotl necoc, the 
Enemy of both Sides, Moqueqiieloa, the Mocker, Nezaual- 
pilU, the Lord who Fasts, Tlamatzincatl, He who Enforces 
Penitence; and as dark, invisible and inscrutable, he was 
Yoalli ehecatl, the Night Wind.'^ 

He was said to be formed of thin air and darkness ; and 
when lie was seen of men it was as a shadow without 
substance. He alone of all the gods defied the assaults of 
time, was ever young and strong, and grew not old with 
years.* Against such an enemy who could hope for 
victory ? 

' Moijocoyatzin, is the third person singular of i/ocoya, to do, to 
make, with the reverential termination tzin, Sahagun says this title 
was given him because he could do what he pleased, on earth or in 
heaven, and no one could prevent him. {Uistoria de Nueim Espaiia, 
Lib. Til, cap. II.) It seems to me that it would rather refer to his 
demiurgic, creative power. 

-All thi'Sfi titles are to lie fmnul in Sahagun, Historia de Nueva 
Espaita. 

^ The descriptiiin ol' Clavigero is worth quoting : " Tezcatijpoca : 
Questo era il maggior Dio, che in que paesi si adorava, dopo il Dio 



MEANING OF TEZCATLIPOCA. 71 

The name " Tezcatlipoca" is one of odd significance. It 
means The Smoking Mirror. This strange metaphor has 
received various explanations. The mirrors in use among 
the Aztecs were polished plates of obsidian, trimmed to a 
circular form. There was a variety of this black stone 
called {ezcapoctli, smoky mirror stone, and from this his 
images were at times made.^ This, however, seems too 
trivial an explanation. 

Others have contended that Tezcatlipoca, as undoubtedly 
the spirit of darkness and the night, refers, in its meaning, 
to the moon, which hangs like a bright round mirror in the 
sky, though partly dulled by what the natives thought a 
smoke.- 

I am inclined to believe, however, that the mirror 
referred to is that first and most familiar of all, the surface 
of water ; and that the smoke is the mist which at night 
rises from lake and river, as actual smoke does in the still 
air. 

As presiding over the darkness and the night, dreams 

and the phantoms of the gloom were supposed to be sent 

by Tezciitlipoca, and to him Avere sacred those animals 

which prowl about at night, as the skunk and the coyote.' 

invisible, o Supremo Essere Era il Dio della Providenza, 1' auima 
del Mondo, il Creator del Cielo e della Terra, ed il Signor di tutle le 
cose. Rappresentavanlo tuttora giovane per significare, che uon s' 
invecchiava mai, nh s' iiuleboli va cogli amii. ' ' Storia Antica di Messico, 
Lib. VI, p. 7. 

^ Sahagun, Historia, Lib. ii, cap. xxxvii. 

^ Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 257. 

* Sahagun, Historia, Lib. vi, caps, ix, xi, xii. 



72 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

Thus liis names, his various attributes, his sacred animals 
and his myths unite in identifying this deity as a primitive 
personification of the Darkness, whether that of the storm 
or of the night.^ 

This is further shown by the beliefs current as to his 
occasional appearance on earth. This xvas always at night 
and in the ffloom of the forest. The hunter would hear a 
sound like the crash of falling trees, which would be nothing 
else than the mighty breathings of the giant form of the 
god on his nocturnal rambles. AVere the hunter timorous 
he would die outright on seeing the terrific presence of the 
god; but were he of undaunted heart, and should rush 
upon him and seize him around the waist, the god was 
helpless and would grant him anything he wished. "Ask 
what you please," the captive deity would say, " and it is 
yours. Only fail not to release me before the sun rises. 
For I must leave before it appears." - 

^ Seuor Alfredo Chavero l^elieves Tezcatlipoca to have been originally 
the moon, and there is little doubt at times this was one of his symbols, 
as the ruler of the darkness. M. Girard de Rialle, on the other hand, 
claims him as a solar deity. " II est la personnification du soleil sous 
son aspect corrupteuretdestructeur,ennemideshommesetde la nature." 
La Mythologie Coinpar^e, ]), 334 (Paris, 1878). A closer study of the 
original authorities would, I am sure, have led M. de Rialle to change 
this opinion. He is singularly far from the conclusion reached 1)y M. 
Ternaux-Compans, who says: "Tezcatlipoca fftt la personnification 
du bon prlncipe." Essai stir la Tli6ogonie Mexiraiiie, p. 23 (Paris, 
1840). Both opinions are equally incomplete. Dr. Schultz-Sellack 
considers him the " Wassergott,'' and assigns him to the North, in his 
essay, Die Ainerikanischeii Gotter der Vier WeUgegenden, Zeitschrift 
fiir Ethnologic, Bd. xi, 187!). This approaches more closely to his 
true character. 

^ Torquemada, Monarqnia Indiana, Lib. xiv, caj). xxii. 



THE FOUR BROTHEES. 73 

§ 2. Quetzalcoatl the God. 

In the ancient and purely mythical narrative, Quetzal- 
coatl is one of four divine brothers, gods like himself, born 
in the uttermost or thirteenth heaven to the infinite and 
uncreated deity, which, in its male manifestations, was 
known as Tonaca tecutli, Lord of our Existence, and Tzin 
teotl, God of the Beginning, and in its female expressions as 
Tonaca cihuatl, Queen of our Existence, Xochiquetzal,Bem- 
tiful Rose, Citlallicue, the Star-skirted or the Milky Way, 
Citlalatonac, the Star that warms, or The Morning, and 
Chicome coafl, the Seven Serpents/ 

Of these four brothers, two were the black and the red 
Tezcatlipoca, and the fourth was Huitzilopochtli, the Left 
handed, the deity adored beyond all others in the city of 
Mexico. Tezcatlipoca — for the two of the name blend 
rapidly into one as the myth progresses — was wise beyond 
compute ; he knew all thoughts and hearts, could see to all 
places, and was distinguished for power aud forethought. 

At a certain time the four brothers gathered together and 
consulted concerning the creation of things. The work 
was left to Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli. First they 

1 The chief authorities on the birth of the god Quetzalcoatl, are 
Ramirez de Fuen-leal Historia de los Mexicanos por sits Pinturas, 
Cap. I, printed in the Anales del Museo Nacional ; the Codex Tclleriano- 
Remensis, and the Codex Vaticanus, both of which are in Kings- 
borough's Mexican Antiquities. 

The usual translation of Tonaca tecutli is " God of our Subsistence,' ' 
to, our, naca, flesh, tecutli, chief or lord. It really has a more subtle 
meaning. Naca is not applied to edible flesh— that is expressed by 
the word nonoac— hut is the flesh of our own bodies, our life, existence. 
See Anales de Cuauhtitlan, p. 18, note. 



74 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

made fire, then lialf a sun, the heSvens, the waters and a 
certain great fish therein, called Cipactli, and from its flesh 
the solid earth. The first mortals were the man, Cipactonal, 
and the woman, Oxomuco,' and that the son born to them 
might have a wife, the four gods made one for him out. of 
a hair taken from the head of their divine mother, Xochi- 
quetzal. 

'Now began the strugo-le between the two brothers, Tez- 
catlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, which was destined to destroy 
time after lime the world, with all its inhabitants, and to 
plunge even the heavenly luminaries into a common ruin. 

The half sun created by Quetzalcoatl lighted the world 

but poorly, and the four gods came together to consult 

about adding another half to it. Not waiting for their 

decision, Tezcatlipoca transformed himself into a sun, 

whereupon the other gods filled the world with great giants, 

who could tear up trees with their hands. When an epoch 

of thirteen times fifty-two years had passed, Quetzalcoatl 

seized a great stick, and with a blow of it knocked Tezcat- 

1 The names Cii)actli and Cipactonal have not been satisfactorily 
analyzed. The derivation offered by Sonor Chavero {Anales del 3fHsco 
Nacional, Tom. n, p. 116), is merely fanciful ; tonal is no doubt from 
tona, to shine, to warn ; and I think cipactli is a softened form with 
the personal ending from chipauac, something beautiful or clear. 
Hence the meaning of the compound is 1 he Beautiful Shining One. 
Oxomuco, which Chavero derives from xomitl, foot, is perhaps the 
same as Xmukane. the mother of the human race, according to the 
Popol Vah,ii name which, I have elsewhere shown, appears to be from 
a Maya ro(jt, moaning to conceal or bury in the ground. The hint is 
of the fertilizing action of the warm light on the seed hi<lden in the 
soil. See The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Mi/ths, Trans, of the 
Amcr. Phil. Soc. 1881. 



THE CONTEST OF THE BROTHERS. 75 

lipoca from the sky into tlie waters, and himself became 
sun. The fallen god transformed himself into a tiger, and 
emerged from the waves to attack and devour the giants 
with which his brothers had enviously filled the world 
which he had been lighting from the sky. After this, he 
passed to the nocturnal heavens, and became the constella- 
tion of the Great Bear. 

For an epoch the earth flourished under Quetzalcoatl as 
sun, but Tezcatlipoca was merely biding his time, and the 
epoch ended, he appeared as a tiger and gave Quetzalcoatl 
such a blow with his paw that it hurled him from the skies. 
The overthrown god revenged himself by sweeping the 
earth with so violent a tornado that it destroyed all the 
inhabitants but a few, and these were changed into monkeys. 
His victorious brother then placed in the heavens, as sun, 
Tlaloc, the god of darkness, water and rains, but after half 
an epoch, Quetzalcoatl poured a flood of fire upon the, earth, 
drove Tlaloc from the sky, and placed in his stead, as sun, 
the goddess Chalchiutlicue, the Emerald Skirted, wife of 
Tlaloc. Ill her time the rains poured so upon the earth 
that all human beings were drowned or changed into fishes, 
and at last the heavens themselves fell, and sun and stars 
were alike quenched. 

Then the two brothers whose strife had brought this 
ruin, united their efforts and raised again the sky, resting 
it on two mighty trees, the Tree of the Mirror [tezcaqua- 
huitl) and the Beautiful Great Rose Tree {qiietzalveixochitl), 
on which the concave heavens have ever since securely 



76 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

rested ; though we know tlicin better, perhaps, if we drop 
the metaphor and call them the " mirroring sea " and the 
" flowery earth," on one of which reposes the horizon, in 
whichever direction we may look. 

Again the four brothers met together to provide a sun for 
the now darkened earth. They decided to make one, 
indeed, but such a one as would eat the hearts and drink 
the blood of victims, and there must be wars upon the earth, 
that these victims could be obtained for the sacrifice. Then 
Quetzalcoatl builded a great fire and took his son — his son 
born of his own flesh, without the aid of woman — and cast 
him into the flames, whence he rose into the sky as the sun 
which lights the world. When the Light-God kindles the 
flames of the dawn in the orient sky, shortly the sun emerges 
from below the horizon and ascends the heavens. Tlaloc, 
god of waters, followed, and into the glowing ashes of the 
pyre threw his son, who rose as the moon. 

Tezcatlipoca had it now in mind to ])eople the earth, and 

he, therefore, smote a certain rock with a stick, and from it 

issued four hundred barbarians {chhhhneca)} Certain five 

goddesses, however, whom lie had already created in tlic 

eighth heaven, descended and slew these four hundred, all 

but three. These goddesses likewise died before the sun 

appeared, but came into being again from the garments 

\ The name Cliichimeca has been a pnzzle. The derivation appears 
to 1)0 from chichi., a dog, mccati, a rope. According to general 
tradition the Chichimeos were a barl)arous people who inhabited 
Mexico before the Aztecs came. Yet Sahagnn says the Toltecs were 
the real Chichimeos (Lib. x, cap. xxix). In the myth we are now 
considering, they were plainly the stars. 



THE FOUR HUNDRED YOUTHS. 77 

they had left behind. So also did the four hundred 
Chichi mecs, and these set about to burn one of the five 
goddesses, by name Coatlicue, the Serpent Skirted, because 
it was discovered that she was with child, though yet 
unmarried. But, in fact, she was a spotless virgin, and 
had known no man. She had placed some white plumes 
in her bosom, and through these th^ god Huitzilopochtli 
entered her body to be born again. When, therefore, the 
four hundred had gathered together to burn her, the god 
came forth fully armed and slew them every one. 

It is not hard to guess who are these four hundred youths 
slain before the sun rises, destined to be restored to life and 
yet again destroyed. The veil of metaphor is thin which 
thus conceals to our mind the picture of the myriad stars 
quenched every morning by the growing light, but return- 
ing every evening to their appointed places. And did any 
doubt remain, it is removed by the direct statement in the 
echo of this tradition preserved by the Kiches of Gua- 
temala, wherein it is plainly said that the four hundred 
youths who were put to death by Zipacna, and restored to 
life by Hunhun Ahpu, " rose into the sky and became the 
stars of heaven."^ 

Indeed, these same ancient men whose explanations I 
have been following added that the four hundred men 
whom Tezcatlipoca created continued yet to live in the 
third heaven, and were its guards and watchmen. They 
were of five colors, yellow, black, white, blue and red, which 

^ Popol Vuh, Le Livre Sacr6 des Quichds, p. 193. 



78 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

in the symbolism of their tongue meant that they were 
distributed arouml the zenith and to each of the four car- 
dinal points.^ 

Nor did these sages suppose that the struggle of the 
dark Tezcatlipoca to master the Light-God had ceased; uo/ 
they knew he was biding his time, with set purpose and a 
fixed certainty of success. They knew that in the second 
heaven there were certain frightful women, without flesh or 
bones, whose names were the Terrible, or the Thin Dart- 
Throwers, who were waiting there until this world should 
end, when they would descend and eat up all mankind." 
Asked concerning the time of this destruction, they re- 
plied that as to the day or season they knew it not, but it 
would be " when Tezcatlipoca should steal the sun from 
heaven for himself"; in other words, when eternal night 
should close in upon the Universe.' 

The myth which I have here given in brief is a promi- 
nent one in Aztec cosmogony, and is known as that of the 
Ages of the World or the Suns. The opinion was widely 

^ See H. de Charcncoy, Des Coideurs Consid^r6es comme Si/mboles 
des Points de V Horizon chcz les Peuples du Nouveau Monde, in the 
Ades de la Soci^te Fhilologiques, Tome vi. No. 3. 

2 These frightful beings were called the Tzitzimime, a word which 
Molina in his Vocabulary renders " cosa espantosa 6 cosa de aguero." 
For a thorough discussion of their place in Mexican mythology, see 
Anak's del Masco National, Tom. ii, pp. 358-372. 

* The whole of this version of the myth is from tlie work of Ramirez 
de Fuen-leal, which 1 consider in some respects the most valuable au- 
thority we possess. It was taken directly from the sacred books .of 
the Aztecs, as explained by the most competent survivors of the Con- 
quest. 



THE FOUR AGES. 79 

accepted that the present is the fifth age or period of the 
world's history ; that it has already underg-one four 
destructions by various causes, and that the present period 
is also to terminate in another such catastr()[)he. The 
agents of such universal ruin have been a great flood, a 
world-wide conflagration, frightful tornadoes and famine, 
earthquakes and wild beasts, and hence the Ages, Suns or 
Periods were called respectively, from their terminations, 
those of Water, Fire, Air and Earth. As we do not know 
the destiny of the fifth, the present one, it has as yet no 
name. 

I shall not attempt to go into the details of this myth, 
the less so as it has recently been analyzed with much 
minuteness by the Mexican antiquary Chavero.^ I will 
merely point out that it is too closely identified with 
a great many similar myths for us to be allowed to siek an 
origin for it peculiar to Mexican or even American soil. 
We can turn to the Tualati who live in Oregon, and they 
will tell us of the four creations and destructions of man- 
kind ; how at the end of the first Age all human beings 
were changed into stars ; at the end of the second they 
became stones ; at the end of the third into fishes ; and at the 
close of the fourth they disappeared, to give place to the tribes 
that now inhabit the world." Or we can read from the 

^ Alfredo Cbavero, La Pieclra del Sol, in the Anales del Museo 
Nacional, Tom. i, p. 353, et seq. 

•^ A. S. Gatschet, The Four Creations of Mankind, a Tualati myth, 
in Traamctloas of the Anthropological Society of Washington, Vol. 
I, p. 60 (1881j. 



80 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

cuneiform inscriptions of ancient Babylon, and find tiie four 
destructions of the race there specified, as by a flood, by 
wild beasts, by famine and by pestilence/ 

The explanation which I have to give of these coinci- 
dences — wiiich could easily be increased — is that the num- 
ber four was chosen as that of the four cardinal points, 
and that the fifth or present age, that in which we live, 
is that which is ruled by the ruler of the four points, by 
the Spirit of I-iight, who was believed to govern them, as, 
in fact, the early dawn does, by defining the relations of 
space, act as guide and governor of the motions of men. 

All through Aztec mythology, traditions and customs, 
we can discover this ancient myth of the four brothers, 
the four ancestors of their race, or the four chieftains who 
led their progenitors to their respective habitations. The 
rude mountaineers of Meztitlan, who worshiped with par- 
ticular zeal Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, and had 
inscribed, in gigantic figures, the sacred five points, symbol 
of the latter, on the side of a vast precipice in their land, 
gave the symbolic titles to the primeval quadruplet ; — 

Ixcuin, He who has four faces. 

HueytecpaU, the ancient Flint-stone. 

Tentetemic, the Lip-stone that slays. 

Nanacatllzatzl, He who speaks when intoxicated with 
the poisonous mushroom, called nanaeafl. 

These four brothers, according to the myth, were born of 

^ Paul Hanpt., Der Keilinschnftliche Siiifjliit/ihe) icht, p. 17 (Ijcip- 
zig. 1881). 



THE FOUR BROTPIERS. 81 

the goddess, Hueytonantzin, which means "our great, 
ancient mother," and, with unlilial hands, turned against 
her and slew her, sacrificing her to tlie Sun and offering 
her heart to that divinity.' In other words, it is the old 
story of the cardinal points, defined at daybreak by the 
Dawn, the eastern Aurora, which is lost in or sacrificed to 
the Sun on its appearance. 

Of these four brothers I suspect the first, Ixcuin,"he who 
looks four ways," or "has four faces," is none other than 
Quetzalcoatl/^ while the Ancient Flint is probably Tezcat- 
lipoca,thus bringing the myth into singularly close relation- 
ship with that of the Iroquois, given on a previous page. 

Another myth of the Aztecs gave these four brothers or 
primitive heroes, as : — 

Huitzilopochtli. 

Huitznahua. 

Itztlacoliuhqui. 

Pantecatl. 

Of these Dr. Schultz-Sellack advances plausible reasons 
for believing that Itztlacoliuhqui, which was the name of a 

^ Gabriel de Chaves, Relacion de la Provincia de Meztitlan, 15£G, 
in the Colecion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indian, Tom. iv, 
pp. 535 and 536. The translations of the names are not given by 
Chaves, but I think they are correct, except, possibly, the third, which 
maybe a compound of ie?ife</, lijistone, <e/wic-/ii, dream, instead of with 
temicti, slayer. 

^ Ixcuina was also the name of the goddess of pleasure. The 
derivaiion is from ixtli, face, c^/^', to take, and na, four. See the 
note of MM. Jourdanet and Simeon, to their translation of Sahagun, 
Ilistoiia. p. 22. 



82 AMERICAN HERO- MYTHS. 

certain form of head-dress, was another title of Quetzalcoatl ; 
and that Pantecatl was one of the names of Tczcatlipoca.' 
If this is tlie case Ave have here another version of the 
same myth, 

§ 3. Quetzalcoatl, the Hero of Tula. 

But it was not (Quetzalcoatl the god, the mysterious 
creator of the visible world, on whom the thoughts of the 
Aztec race delighted to dwell, but on Quetzalcoatl, high 
priest in the glorious city of Tollan (Tula), the teacher of 
the arts, the wise lawgiver, the virtuous prince, the master 
builder and the merciful judge. 

Here, again, though the scene is transferred from heaven 
to earth and from the cycles of other worlds to a date not 
extremely remote, the story continues to be of his contest 
with Tezcatlipoca, and of the wiles of this enemy, now 
diminished to a potent magician and jealous rival, to dis- 
possess and drive him from fomous Tollan. 

No one versed in the metaphors of mythology can be 
deceived by the thin veil of local color which surrounds the 
myth in this its terrestrial and historic form. Ai)art from 
its being but a repetition or continuation of the genuine 
ancient account of the conflict of day and night, light and 
darkness, which I have already given, the name Tollan is 
enough to point out the place and the powers with which 
the story deals. For this Tollan, where Quetzalcoatl reigned, 

^ Dr. Scliultz Selliick, Die Amerikanischen Goiter ihr Vier Welt- 
gegendcn nud ihre Tempel in Palenqite,'u\ the Zeitschrift fur Eth 
nologic, Bd. xi, (1879). 



THE CITY OF TULA. Q6 

is not by any means, as some have supposed, the little town 
of Tula, still alive, a dozen leagues or so northwest from 
the city of Mexico; nor was it, as the legend usually 
stated, in some undefined locality from six hundred to a 
thousand leagues northwest of that city; nor yet in Asia, 
as some antiquaries have maintained ; nor, indeed, any- 
where upon this weary world ; but it was, as the name 
denotes, and as the native historian Tezozomoc long since 
translated it, where the bright sun lives, and where the god 
of light forever rules so long as that orb is in the sky. 
Tollan is but a syncopated form of Tonatlan, the Place of 
the Sun.' 

It is worth while to examine the whereabouts and char- 
acter of this marvelous city of Tollan somewhat closely, 
for it is a place that we hear of in the oldest m^-ths and 
legends of many and different races. Not only the Aztecs, 
but the Mayas of Yucatan and the Kiches and Cakchi- 
quels of Guatemala bewailed, in woful songs, the loss to 

^ " Tontilan, 6 lugar del sol," says Tezozomoc {Cronica Mexicaua, 
chap. i). The full form is Tonailan, from to7ia, " hacer sol," and 
the place ending tlan. The derivation from folliii, a rush, is of no 
value, and it is nothing to the point that in the picture writing Tollan 
was represented by a bundle of rushes (Kingsborough, vol. vi, p. 177, 
note), as that was merely in accordance with the rules of the picture 
writing, which represented names by rebuses. Still more worth- 
less is the derivation given by Herrera {Historia de las Indias 
Occidentales, Dec. lit. Lib. ii, cap. xi), that it means '"Lugar de 
Tuna" or the place where the tuna (the fruit of the Opuntia) is found ; 
inasmuch as the word tuna is not from the Aztec at all, but belongs 
to that dialect of the Arawack spoken by the natives of Cuba and 
Haiti. 



84 AMERICAN IIEKO-MYTIIS. 

tliciii ol" tliiit beautiful land, and counted its destruction as 
a common starting point in their annals.' Well might they 
regret it, for not again would they find its like. In tiiat 
land the crop of maize never failed, and the ears grew as 
long as a man's arm ; the cotton burst its pods, not white 
only, but naturally of all beautiful colors, scarlet, green, 
blue, orange, what you would ; the gourds could not be 
clasped in the arms ; birds of beauteous plumage filled the 
air with melodious song. There was never any want nor 
poverty. All the riches of the world were there, houses 
built of silver and precious jade, of rosy mother of pearl 
and of azure turquoises. The servants of the great king 
C^uetzalcoatl were skilled in all manner of arts; when he 
sent them forth they flew to any part of the world with 
infinite speed; and his edicts were j)roclaimed from the 
summit of the mountain Tzatzitepec, the Hill of Shouting, 
by criers of such mighty voice that they could be heard a 
hundred leagues away.- His servants and disciples were 
called " Sons of the Sun" and "Sons of the Clouds.'" 

A\'iiere, then, was this marvelous land and wondrous 
(rity ■? AVhere could it be but where the Light-God is on his 
throne, where the life-giving sun is ever present, where are 

' Till; Boohs of ChiJan Baluni, of tlit- Miiyas, tlie liecord from Tec- 
pan AtiHaii, of" the Caki'lii(|ii(;l.s, iiiul the Popol vnh. National Book, 
of tlic Kiclit's, have nuioh to say about Tulan. These works were all 
wi'itten at a very early date, by natives, and they have all Ijeen pre- 
served in the original tongues, though unforluiuitely only thi- last men- 
tioned has been published. 

- Sahagun, Ilisforia, Lib. iii, cap. iii. 

' Durau, llisioria dc los Iiidios, in Kiugsljorough, vol. viii, p. 207. 



THE FOUR TULANS. 85 

the mansions of the day, and where all nature rejoices in 
the splendor of its rays ? 

But this is more than in one spot. It may be in the 
uppermost heaveus, where light is born and the fleecy clouds 
swim easily ; or in the west, where the sun descends to his 
couch in sanguine glory ; or in the east, beyond the purple 
rim of the sea, whence he rises refreshed as a giant to run 
his course ; or in the underworld, wherehe passes the night. 

Therefore, in ancient Cakchiquel legend it is said: 
" Where the sun rises, there is one Tulan ; another is in 
the underworld ; yet another where the sun sets ; and there 
is still another, and there dwells the God. Thus, O niy 
children, there are four Tulans, as the ancient men have 
told us."^ 

The most venerable traditions of the Maya race claimed 
for them a migration from " Tollan in Zuy va." " Thence 
came we forth together," says the Kiche myth, " there was 
the common parent of our race, thence came we, from 
among the Yaqui men, whose god is Yolcuat Quetzalcoat." " 
This Tollan is certainly none other than the abode of 
Quetzalcoatl, named in an Aztec manuscript as Zivena 

^ Francigco Ernantez Araiux Xahila. Memorial de Tecpan Aiitlan, 
MS. in Cakchiquel, in my possession. 

2 Le Popol Vuh, p. 247. The name Yaqui means in Kiche civilized 
or polished, and was applied to the Aztecs, but it is, in its origin, from 
an Aztec root i/auh, to go, whence i/aque, travelers, and especialh' 
merchants. The Kiches recognizing in the Aztec merchants a superior 
and cultivated class of men, adopted into their tongue the name which 
the merchants gave themselves, and used the word in the above sense. 
Compare Sahagun, Historia de Xueva Espuiia, Lib. ix, cap. xii. 



86 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

vifzcatl, a word of uncertain derivatioy, but applied to the 
highest heaven. 

Where Qnetzalcoatl finally retired, and whence he was 
expected back, was still a Tollan — Tollan Tlapallan — and 
Montezuma, when he heard of the arrival of the Spaniards, 
exclaimed, " It is Qnetzalcoatl, returned from Tula." 

The cities which selected him as their tutelary deity 
were named for that which he was supposed to have ruled 
over. Thus we have Tollan and Tollantzinco (" beiiind 
Tollan ") iu the Valley of Mexico, and the pyramid 
Cholula was called "Tollan-Cholollan," as w^ell as many 
other Tollans and Tulas among the Nahuatl colonies. 

The natives of the city of Tula were called, from its 
name, the Tolteca, which simply means " those who dwell 
in Tollan." And who, let us ask, were these Toltecs? 

They have hoverecLabout the dawn of American history 
long enough. To them have been attributed not only the 
primitive culture of Central America and Mexico, but of 
lands far to the north, and even the earthworks of tlie Oliio 
Valley. It is time they were assigned their proper place, 
and that is among tiie purely fabulous creations of the 
imagination, among the giants and fairies, the gnomes and 
syl[)hs, and other such fancied beings which in all ages and 
nations the poi)ular mind has loved to create. 

Toltec, Toltecatl,' which in later days came to mean a 

^ Toltecatl, according to Molina, is " oficial de arte meeanica 6 
maestro," {Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana, s. v.). This is a 
si'condarj' meaning. Veitia justly says, " Toltecatl quiere decir artifice, 
|)orque en ThoUan comonznron a ensciiar, annque a ThoUan llamaruii 
Tula, y por decir Toltecatl dicen Tuloteca"' {Historia, cap. xv). 



WHO WERE THE TOLTECS ? 87 

skilled craftsman or artiiicer, signifies, as I have said, an 
inhabitant of Tollan — of the City of the Sun — in other 
words, a Child of Light. Without a metaphor, it meant 
at first one of the far darting, bright shining rays of the 
sun. Not only does the tenor of the whole myth show 
this, but specifically and clearly the [)0\vers attributed to 
the ancient Toltecs. As the immediate subjects of the God 
of Light they were called " Those who fly the whole day 
without resting,"^ and it was said of them that they had 
the power of reaching instantly even a very distant place. 
When the Light-God himself departs, they too disappear, 
and their city is left uninhabited and desolate. 

In some, and these I consider the original versions of 
the myth, they do not constitute a nation at all, but are 
merely the disciples or servants of Quetzalcoatl.'^ They 
have all the traits of beings of supernatural powers. They 
were astrologers and necromancers, marvelous poets and 
philosophers, painters as were not to be found elsewhere in 
the world, and such builders that for a thousand leagues 
the remains of their cities, temples and fortresses strewed 
the land. " When it has happened to me," says Father 
Duran, " to ask an Indian who cut this pass through the 

^ Their title was Tlanqua cemilhuique, compounded of tlanqna, to 
set the teeth, as with strong determination, and cemilhuitia, to run 
during a Avhole day. Sahagun, Historia, Lib. in, cap. iir, and Lib. 
X, cap. XXIX; compare also the myth of Tezcatlipoca di guised as an 
old woman parching corn, the odor of which instantly attracted the 
Toltecs, no matter how far off they were. When they came she killed 
them. Id. Lib. in, cap. xi. 

^ "Discipulos," Duran, /fisform, in Kingsborough, vol. viii, p. 260. 



88 amerk;an hero-myths. 

mountains, or who opened that spring of water, or wlio 
built that old ruin, the answer was, * The Toltecs, the dis- 
ciples of Papa.' " ' 

They were tall in stature, beyond the common race of 
men, and it was nothing uncommon for them to live hun- 
dreds of years. Such was their energy that they allowed 
no lazy person to live among them, and like their master 
they were skilled in every art of life and' virtuous beyond 
the power of mortals. In complexion they are described 
as light in hue, as was their leader, and as are usually the 
personifications of light, and not the less so among the 
dark races of men.'^ 

When Quetzalcoatl left Tollan most of the Toltecs had 
already perished by the stratagems of Tezcatlipoca, and 
those that survived were said to have disappeared on his 
departure. The city was left desolate, and what became 
of its remaining inhabitants no one knew. But this very 
uncertainty offered a favorable opportunity for various 
nations, some speaking Nahuatl and some other tongues, to 
claim descent from this mysterious, ancient and wondrous 
race. 

The question seems, indeed, a difficult one. When the 
Light-God disappears from the sky, shorn of his beams and 
bereft of his glory, where are the bright rays, the darting 
gleams of light which erewhile bathed the earth in re- 
fulgence ? Gone, gone, we know not whither. 

1 Ibid. 

^ For the character of the Toltecs as here portrayed, see Ixtlilxo- 
chitl, Itelaciones Historicas^ and Veitia, Uistoria, passion. 



TLAPALLAX. 89 

The original home of the Toltecs was said to have been 
in Tlapallan — the very same Red Land to which Quctzal- 
coatl was fabled to have returned ; only the former was 
distinguished as Old Tlapallan — Hue Tlapallan — as being 
that from which he and they had emerged. Other myths 
called it the Place of Sand, Xalac, an evident reference to 
the sandy sea strand, the same spot where it was said that 
Quetzalcoatl was last seen, beyond which the sun rises and / ^ 

below which he sinks. Thither he returned when driven 
from Tollan, and reigned over his vassals many years in 
peace.' 

We cannot mistake this Tlapallan, new or old. AVhether 
it is bathed in the purple and gold of the rising sun or in 
the crimson and carnation of his setting, it always was, as 
Sahagun tells us, with all needed distinctness, " the city of 
the Sun," the home of light and color, whence their leader, 
Quetzalcoatl had come, and wdiither he was summoned to 
return." \ 

The origin of the earthly Quetzalcoatl is variously given ; 
one cycle of legends narrates his birth in Tolhm in some 
extraordinary manner; a second cycle claims that he was 
not born in any country known to the Aztecs, but came to 
them as a stranger. 

^ " Se mctio (Quetzalcoatl) la tierra adeutro hasta Tlapallan 6 segun 
otvos Huey Xalac, antigua patria do sus antepasados, eu donde vivio 
muclios ailos.'' Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones llistoricas. p. 394, in Kings- 
borough, vol. IX. Xalac, is from xalli, sand, with the locative ter- 
mination. In Nahuatl xalli aquia, to enter the sand, means to die. 

2 " Dicen que camin6 acia el Oriente, y que se fue 4 la ciudad del 
Sol, llamada Tlapallan, y fu6 llamado del sol." Libro. viii, Prologo. 



90 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

Of the former cycle probably one of the oldest versions 
is that he was a sou or descendant of Tezcatlipoca himself, 
under his name Camaxtli. This was the account given to 
the chancellor Ramirez,' and it is said by Torquemada to 
have been the canonical doctrine taught in the holy city of 
Cholollaii, the centre of die worship of Qnctzalcoatl.' It is 
a transparent metaphor, and could be paralleled by a 
hundred similar expressions in the myths of other nations. 
The Night brings forth the Day, the darkness leads on to 
the light, and though thus standing in the relation of father 
and son, the struggle between them is forever continued. 

Another myth represents him as the immediate son of 
the All-Father Tonaca tecutli, under his title Citlallatonac, 
the Morning, by an earth-born maiden in Tollan. In that 
city dwelt three sisters, one of whom, an unspotted virgin, 
was named Chimalman. One day, as they were together, 
the god appeared to them. Chimalman's two sisters were 
struck to death by fright at his awful presence, but upon 
her he breathed the breath of life, and straightway she 
conceived. The son she bore cost her life, but it was the 
divine Quetzalcoatl, surnamed Toj^iKcln, Our Son, and, 
from the year of his birth, Ce Aoatl, One Reed. As soon 
as he was born he was possessed of speech and reason and 

1 Ramirez de Fuen-loal, Hist, de los Mexicanos, cap. vin. 

^ Monarquia Indiana, Lib. vi, cap. xxiv. Camaxtli is also found 
ill the form Yoamaxtli; this siiows that it is a compound of maxtli, 
covering, clothing, and ca, the substantive verb, or in the latter 
instance, i?o«///, night; hence it is, " the Mantle," or, "the garb of 
niglit" ("la faja nocturna,"' Anales'del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, 
p. 363). 



THE VIRGIX MOTHER. 91 

wisdom. As for his mother, liaving perished on earth, she 
was transferred to the heavens, where she was given the hon- 
ored name Chalchihnitzli, the Precious Stone of Sacrifice.* 

This, also, is evidently an ancient and simple figure of 
speech to express that the breath of Morning announces the 
dawn which brings forth the su^ and disappeaj:'S in the 
act. 

The virgin mother Chimalman, in another legend, is said 
to have been brought with child by swallowing a jade or 
precious green stone (chalchihuiil) ;'^ while another averred 
that she was not a virgin, but the wife of Camaxtli (Tez- 
catlipoca) ;^ or again, thai she was the second wife of that 
venerable old man who was the father of the seven sons 
from whom all tribes speaking the Nahuatl language, and 
several who, did not speak it (Otomies, Tarascos), were 
descended.^ This latter will repay analysis. 

All through Mexico and Central America this legend of 
the Seven Sons, Seven Tribes, the Seven Caves whence 
they issued, or the Seven Cities where they dwelt, con- 
stantly crops out. To that laud the Aztecs referred as 

^ Codex Vatiranus, Tah. x ; Codex Telleriano-Remen.iis, Pt. ti, Lam. 
II. The name is from chalchihuitl, jade, and vitztli, the thorn used to 
pierce the tongue, ears and penis, in sacrifice. Chimalman, more 
correctly, Chimalmatl, is from chimdlU, sh\e\d, and probably, matlalin, 
green. 

- Mendieta, Uisforia Edesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. vi. 

» Ibid. 

' Motoliuia, Historia de los Indios de Niieva Espatfa, Epistola 
Proemial, p. 10. The first wife was Ilanoueitl, from ilantli, old 
woman, and cueitl, skirt. Gomara, Conquista de Mejico, p. 432. 



92 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

their former dwelling place. It was located at some in- 
definite distance to the north or northwest — in the same 
direction as Tollan. The name of that land was signifi- 
cant. It was called the White or Bright Land, Aztlav.^ 
In its midst was situated the mountain or hill Colhuacan 
the Divine, TeoculhuacanJ' In the base of this hill were 
tfie Seven Caverns, Chicomoztoc, whence the seven tribes 
with their respective gods had issued, those gods includ- 
ing Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli and the Tezcatlipocas. 
There continued to live their mother, awaiting their return. 
The lord of this land and the father of the seven sons is 
variously and indistinctly named. One legend calls him 
the White Serpent of the Clouds, or the White Cloud Twin, 
Iztac Mixcoatl:^ Whoever he was we can hardly mistake 
the mountain in which or upon which he dwelt. Colhua- 
can means the bent or curved mountain. It is none other 
than the Hill of Heaven, curving down on all sides to the 
horizon ; upon it in all times have dwelt the gods, and from 

^ The derivation of Aztlan from aztatl, a heron, has been rejected by 
Buschmann and the best Aztec schoUirs. It is from the same root as 
iztac, white, with the local ending tlan, and means the White or Bright 
Land. See the subject discussed in Buschmann, Ueber die Atzek- 
ischen Oiisnamen. p 612, and recentlj' by Seiior Orozeo y Berra, in 
Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 56. 

- Colhuacan, is a locative form. It is usually derived from colon, to 
curve, to round. Father Duraii says it is another name for Aztlan : 
" Estas cuevas son en Teoculacan, que por otro nombre se llama 
Aztlan." Historia de Ins ladios de Nueva Espaiia, Lii). i, cap. i. 

Tea is from teotl, god, deity. The description in the text of the 
relations of land and water in this mythical land, is also from Duran's 
work. 

^ Mendieta, Historia Edesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. xxxiii. 



COLHUACAN. 93 

it they have come to aid the men they favor. Absolutely 
the same name was applied by the Choctavvs to the myth- 
ical hill from which they say their ancestors first emerged 
into the light of day. They call it Nane Waiyah, the 
Bent or Curved Hill.' Such identity of metaphorical ex- 
pression leaves little room for discussion. 

If it did, the other myths which surround the mystic 
mountain would seem to clear up doubt. Colhuacan, we 
are informed, continued to be the residence of the great 
Mother of the Gods. On it she dwelt, awaiting their re- 
turn from earth. No one can entirely climb the mountain, 
for from its middle distance to the summit it is of fine and 
slippery sand ; but it has this magical virtue, that w4io- 
ever ascends it, however old he is, grows young again, in 
proportion as he mounts, and is thus restored to pristine 
vigor. The happy dwellers around it have, however, no 
need of its youth restoring power ; for in that land no one 
grows old, nor knows the outrage of years. ^ 

When Quetzalcoatl, therefore, was alleged to be the son 
of the Lord of the Seven Caves, it was nothing more than 
a variation of the legend that gave him out as the son of 
the Lord of the High Heavens. They both mean the same 
thing. Chimalman, who appears in both myths as his 
mother, binds the two together, and stamps them as 

1 See my work, The Myths of the New World, p. 242. 

- "Eu esta tierra nuuca envejecen los hombres. * * * Este 
cerro tieue esta virtud, que el que ya viejo se quiere remozar, sube 
hasta donde le parece, y vuelve de la edad que quiere." Duran, in 
Kingsborough, Vol. viii, p. 201. 



94 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

identical, while Mixcoatl is only another name for 
Tezcatlipoea. 

Such an interpretation, if correct, would lead to the dis- 
missal from history of the whole story of the Seven Cities 
or Caves, and the pretended migration from them. In 
fact, the repeated endeavors of the chroniclers to a&sign a 
location to these fabulous residences, have led to no result 
other than most admired disorder and confusion. It is as 
vain to seek their whereabouts, as it is that of the garden 
of Eden or the Isle of Avalon, They have not, and never 
had a place on this sublunary sphere, but belong in that 
ethereal world which the fancy creates and the imagina- 
tion paints. 

A more prosaic account than any of the above, is given 
by the historian, Alva Ixtilxochitl, so prosaic that it is 
possible that it has some grains of actual fact in it.^ He 
tells us that a King of Tollau, Tecpancaltzin, fell in love 
with the daughter of one of his subjects, a maiden by name 
Xochitl, the Rose. Her father was the first to. collect 
honey from the njaguey plant, and on pretence of buying 
this delicacy the king often sent for Xochitl. He accom- 
plished her seduction, and hid her in a rose garden on a 
mountain, where she gave birth to an infant son, to the great 
anger of the father. Casting the horoscope of the infant, 
the court astrologer found all the signs that he should be 
the last King of Tollan, and should witness the destruction 

^ Ixtlilxoehitl, lielaciones Historical, p. 330, in Kingsboi-ough, 
Vol. IX. 



THE EOSE GARDEN OF THE GODS. 95 

of the Toltec monarchy. He was named Meconelzin, the 
Son of the Maguey, and in due time became king, and the 
prediction was accomplished.^ 

In several points, however, tliis seemingly historic nar- 
rative has a suspicious resemblance to a genuine myth pre- 
served to us in a certain Aztec manuscript kuo"wn as the 
Codex Tellerlano-Remensis. This document tells how 
Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and their brethren were at first 
gods, and dwelt as stars in the heavens. They passed their 
time in Paradise, in a Rose Garden, Xochitlycacan (" where 
the roses are lifted up ") ; but on a time they began pluck- 
ing the roses from the great Rose tree in the centre of the 
garden, and Tonaca-tecutli, in his anger at their action, 
hurled them to the earth, where they lived as nx>rtals. 

The significance of this myth, as applied to the daily de- 
scent of sun and stars from the zenith to the horizon, is too 
obvious to need special comment ; and the coincidences of 
the rose garden on the mountain (in the one instance the 
Hill of Heaven, in t^he other a supposed terrestrial eleva- 
tion) from which Quetzalcoatl issues, and the anger of the 
parent, seem to indicate that the supposed historical relation 
of Ixtlilxochitl is but a myth dressed in historic garb. 

The second cycle of legends disclaimed any miraculous 
parentage for the hero of Tollan. Las Casas narrates his 

^ In the work of Ramirez de Fuen-leal (cap. viii), Tecatlipoca is 
said to have been the discoverer of pulque, the intoxicating wine 
of the Maguey. In Meztitlan he was associated with the gods of this 
beverage and of drunkenness. Hence it is probable that the name 
Meconetzin applied to Quetzalcoatl in this myth meant to convey that 
he was the son of Tezcatlipoca. 



96 AMERICAN HERO MYTHS. 

arrival from the East, from some part of Yucatan, he 
thinks, with a few followers,^ a tradition which is also 
repeated with definitiveness by the native historian, Alva 
Ixtlilxochitl, but leaving the locality uncertain.- The 
historian, Veytia, on the other hand, describes him as 
arriving from the North, a full grown man, tall of stature, 
white of skin, and full-bearded, barefooted and bareheaded, 
clothed in a long white robe strewn with red crosses, and 
carrying a staff in his hand.' 

Whatever the origin of Quetzalcoatl, whether the child 
of a miraculous conception, or whether as an adult stranger 
he came from some far-off land, all accounts agree as to the 
greatness and purity of his character, and the magnificence 
of Tollan under his reign. His temple was divided into four 
apartments, one toward the East, yellow with gold ; one 
toward the West, blue with turquoise and jade ; one toward 
the South, white with pearls and shells, and one toward 
the North, red with bloodstones; thus symbolizing the 
four cardinal points and four quarters of the world over 
which the light holds sway.'* 

' Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. vi, caji. xxiv. This was 
apparently the canonical doctrino in Cliolula. Mendietu says : "El 
dios 6 idolo de Cholula, llamado Quetzalcoatl, fu6 el mas celebrado y 
tenido por mejor y mas digno sobre los otro dioses, segnn la reputa- 
cion de todos. Este, segun sus historias (aunque algnnos digan que 
de Tula) vino de las partes de Yucatan & la ciudad de Cholula." His- 
toria Edesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. x. 

^Historia Chichimera, cap. i. 

^Hisforia, cap. x\. 

'* Sahagun, Lib. ix, ca]>. xxix. 



THE BATH OF QUETZALCOATL. 97 

Through the midst of Tollan flowed a great river, and 
upon or over tliis river was the house of Quctzalcoatl. 
Every night at midnight he descended into this river to 
bathe, and the place of his bath was called, In the Painted 
Vase, or. In the Precious Waters. For the Orb of Light 
dips nightly into the waters of the World Stream, and the 
painted clouds of the sun-setting surround the spot of his 
ablutions. 

I have said that the history of Quctzalcoatl in Tollan is 
but a continuation of the conflict of the two primal brother 
gods. It is still the implacable Tezcatlipoca who pursues 
and finally conquers him. But there is this significant 
difl^erence, that whereas in the elemental warfare portrayed 
in the older myth mutual violence and alternate destruction 
prevail, in all these later myths Quctzalcoatl makes no 
eifort at defence, scarcely remonstrates, but accepts his 
defeat as a decree of Fate which it is vain to resist. He 
sees his people fall about him, and the beautiful city 
sink into destruction, but he knows it is the hand of 
Destiny, and prepares himself to meet the inevitable with 
what stoicism and dignity he may. 

^ The name of the bath of Quetzalcoatl is variously given us Xicd- 
poyan, from xicalli, vases made from gourds, and poi/aii, to paint 
.(Suhagun, Lib. Hi, op. m) ; Chalchiukapan, from atl^ vfdWvpan, in, 
and chalchiuM, precious, brilliant, th« jade stone {id., Lib. x, cap. 
xxix) ; and Atecpanamochco, from aU,wa,tev, tecpan, roj^al, amochtli, 
any shining white metal, as tin, and the locative co, hence, In the 
Shining Royal Water {Anales de Cuauhfitlan, p. 21). These names 
are interesting as illustrating the halo of symbolism which surrounded 
the history of the Light- God. 



98 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

Tlie one is the quenching of the light by the darkness of 
the tempest and the niglit, represented as a struggle ; in the 
other it is the gradual and calm but certain and unavoidable 
extinction of the suu as it noiselessly sinks to the western 
horizon. 

The story of the subtlety of Tezcatlipoca is variously 
told. In what may well be its oldest and simplest version 
it is said that in his form as Camaxtli he caught a deer 
with two heads, which, so long as he kept it, secured him 
luck in war ; but falling in with one of five goddesses he 
had created, he begat a son, and through this act he lost 
his good fortune. The son was Quetzalcoatl, surnamed Ce 
Acatl, and he became Lord of Tollan, and a famous 
warrior. For many years he ruled the city, and at last 
began to build a very great temple. While engaged in its 
construction Tezcatlipoca canic to him ouedayand told him 
that toward Honduras, in a place called Tlapallan, a house 
was ready for him, and he must quit Tollan and go there to 
live and die. Quetzalcoatl re[)lied that the heavens and stars 
had already warned him that after four years he must go 
hence, and that he would obey. The time past, he took 
with him all the inhabitants of Tula, and some Jie left in 
Cholula, from whom its inhabitants are descended, and 
some he placed in the province of Cuzcatan, and others in 
Cerapoal, and at last he reached Tlapallan, and on tiie 
very day he arrived there, he fell sick and tlicd. As for 
Tula, it remained without an inhabitant for nine years.' 

' Uamiroz de Fiicii-lcal, Ilisloria de los Mexicaiio.s jior tius riiitnras, 
cup. VIII. 



THE FATE OF QUETZALCOATL. 99 

A more minute account is given by the author of the 
Annals of Cuanhtitlan, a work written at an early date, in 
the Aztec tongue. Reassures his readers that his narrative 
of these particular events is minutely and accurately 
recorded from the oldest and most authentic traditions. 
It is this : — 

When those opposed to Quetzalcoatl did not succeed in 
their designs, they summoned to their aid a demon or 
sorcerer, by name Tezcatlipoca, and his assistants. He 
said : " We will give him a drink to dull his reason, and 
will show him his own face in a mirror, and surely he will 
be lost." Then Tezcatlipoca brewed an intoxicating 
beverage, the pulque, from the maguey, and taking a mirror 
he wrapped it in a rabbit skin, and went to the house of 
Quetzalcoatl. 

" Go tell your master," he said to the servants, " that I 
have come to show him his own flesh." 

" What is this?" said Quetzalcoatl, when the message was 
delivered. "What does he call my own flesh? Go and 
ask him." 

But Tezcatlipoca refused. " I have not come to see you, 
but your master," he said to the servants. Then he was 
admitted, and Quetzalcoatl said : — 

" Welcome, youth, you have troubled yourself much. 
Whence come you ? What is this, my flesh, that you 
would show me ?" 

" My Lord and Priest," replied the youth, "I come from 
the mountain-side of Nouoalco. Look, now, at your flesh ; 



100 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

know yourself; see yourself as you are seen of others;" and 
with that he handed him the mirror. 

As soon as Quetzalcoatl saw his face in the mirror he 
exclaimed : — 

" How is it possible my subjects can look on me without 
affright ? AVell might they flee from me. How can a mun 
remain among them filled as I am with foul sores, his face 
wrinkled and his aspect loathsome? I shall be seen no 
more; I shall no longer frighten my people." 

Then Tezcatlipoca went away to take counsel, and return- 
ing, said: — 

"My lord and master, use the skill of your servant. I 
have come to console you. Go forth to your people. I 
will conceal your defects by art." 

"Do what you please," replied Quetzalcoatl. " I will 
see what my fate is to be." 

Tezcatlipoca painted his cheeks green and dyed his lips 
red. , The forehead he colored yellow, and taking feathers 
of the quechol bird, he arranged them as a beard. Quetzal- 
coatl surveyed himself in the mirror, and rejoiced at his 
appearance, and forthwith sallied forth to sec his people. 

Tezcatlipoca withdrew to concoct another scheme of dis- 
grace. AVith his attendants he took of the strong pulque 
which he had brewed, and came again to the palace of the 
Lord of Tol Ian. They were refused admittance and asked 
their country. They replied that th(3y were from the 
Mountain of the Holy Priest, from the Hill of Tollan. 
When Quetzalcoatl heard this, he ordered them to be 



THE TEMPTATIOX. 101 

admitted, and asked their business. They offered him the 
pulque, but he refused, saying that he was sick, and, more- 
over, that it would weaken his judgment and might cause 
his death. They urged him to dip but the tip of his finger 
in it to taste it ; he complied, but even so little of the magic 
liquor overthrew his self control, and taking the bowl he 
quaffed a full draught and was drunk. Then these per- 
verse men ridiculed him, and cried out : — 

" You feel finely now, my son ; sing us a song ; sing, 
worthy priest." 

Thereupon Quetzalcoatl began to sing, as follows: — 

"My pretty house, my coral house, 
1 call it Zacuan by name ; 
And must I leave it, do you say ? 

Oh my, oh me, and ah for shame." ^ 

As the fumes of the liquor still further disordered his 
reason, he called his attendants and bade them hasten to 
his sister Qiistzilpstlatl, who dwelt on the Mountain 
Nouoalco, and bring her, that she too might taste the divine 
liquor. The attendants hurried off and said to his sister : — 

" Noble lady, we have come for you. The high priest 
Quetzalcoatl awaits you. It is his wish that you come and 
live with him." 

^ The original is — 

Quetzal, quetzal, no calli, 

Zacuan, no callin tapach 
No callin nic yacahuaz 

An j'a, an ya, an (luilniach. 
Literally — 

Beautiful, beautiful (is) my house 
Zacuan, my house of coral ; 
My house, I must leave it. 
Alas, alas, they gay. 

Zacuan, instead of being a proper name, may mean a rich yellow 
feather from the bird called zacuantototl. 



102 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

She instantly obeyed and went with them. On her 

arrival Quetzalcoatl seated her beside hiiu and gave her to 

drink of the magical pulque. Immediately she felt its 

influence, and Quetzalcoatl began to sing, in drunken 

fashion — 

" Sister mine, beloved mine, 
Q uetzal — petlutl — tzin , 
Come with me, drink witli me, 
'Tis no sin, sin, sin." 

Soon they were so drunken that all reason was forgotten ; 
they said no prayers, they went not to the bath, and they 
sank asleep on the floor.^ 

Sad, indeed, was Quetzalcoatl the next morning. 

" I have sinned," he said ; " the stain on my name can 
never be erased. I am not fit to rule this people. Let them 
build for me a habitation deep under ground ; let them bury 
my bright treasures in the earth ; let them throw the 
o^leamino:: o-old and shinino; stones into the holv fountain 
where I take my daily bath." 

All this was done, and Quetzalcoatl spent four days in 

^ It is not clear, at least in the translations, whetlier the myth 
intimates an incestuous relation betweea Quetzalcoatl and his sis- 
ter. In the song he calls her " Nohueltluh," which means, strictl}% 
" M}' elder sister ;" but Mendoza translates it " Querida esposa mia." 
Quetzal petlatl means " the Beautiful Carpet," petlail being the rug or 
mat used on floors, etc. This would be a most appropriate figure of 
.speech to describe a rich tropical landscape, " carpeted with flowers," 
as we say ; and as the earth is, in primitive cosmogony, older than the 
sun, I suspect that this story of Quetzalcoatl and his sister refers to 
the sun sinking from heaven, seemingly, into the earth. " Los Na- 
hoas," remarks Chavero, "figuraban la tierra en forma de un cua- 
drililtero dividido en pequenos quatros, lo que semijaba una estera, 
petlatl" {Ainilea del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 248). 



QUETZALCOATL VANQUISHED. 103 

his underground tomb. NVhen he came forth he wept and 
told his followers that the time had come for him to depart 
for Tlapallan, the Red Land, Tlillan, the Dark I^and, and 
Tlatlallan, the Fire Land, all names of one locality. 

He journeyed, eastward until he came to a place where 
the sky, and land, and water meet together.^ There his 
attendants built a funeral pile, and he threw himself into 
the flames. As his body burned his heart rose to heaven, 
and after four days became the planet Veuus.^ 

That there is a profound moral significance in this fiction 
all will see ; but I am of opinion that it is accidental and ad- 
ventitious. The means that Tezcatlipoca employs to remove 
Quetzalcoatl refer to the two events that mark the decline 
of day. The sun is reflected by a long lane of beams in 
the surface waters of lake or sea ; it loses the strength 
of its rays and fails in vigor; while the evening mists, the 
dampness of approaching dewfall, and the gathering clouds 
obscure its power and foretell the extinction which will 
soon engulf the bright luminary. As Quetzalcoatl cast his 
shining gold and precious stones into the water where he 
took his nightly bath, or buried them in underground hid- 
ing places, so the sun conceals his glories under the waters, 
or in the distant hills, into which he seems to sink. As he 

^ Designated in the Aztec original by the name Teoapan Ilhuica- 
atenco, from teotl, divine, atl, water, pan, in or near, ilkuicac, heaven, 
atenco, the waterside: "Near the divine water, where the sky meets 
the strand." 

^ The whohi of tliis account is from tlie Aiiales de Cuauhtitlan, pp. 
16-2-2. 



104 AMERICAN HERO- MYTHS. 

disappears at certain seasons, the Star of Evening shines 
brightly forth amid the lingering and fading rays, rising, 
as it were, from the dying fires of the sunset. 

To this it may be objected that the legend makes Quet- 
zalcoatl journey toward the East, and not toward the sunset. 
The explanation of this apparent contradiction is easy. 
The Aztec sages had at some time propounded to them- 
selves the question of how the sun, which seems to set in the 
West, can rise the next morning in the East ? Mungo Parke 
tells us that when he asked the desert Arabs this conundrum, 
they replied that the inquiry was frivolous and childish, as 
being wholly beyond the capacities of the human mind. 
The Aztecs did not think so, and had framed a definite 
theory which overcame the difficulty. It was that, in fact, 
the sun only advances to the zenith, and then returns to 
the East, from whence it started. What we seem to see as 
the sun between the zenith and the western horizon is, in 
reality, not the orb itself, but only its brightness, one of its 
accidents, not its substance, to use the terms of metaphysics. 
Hence to the Aztec astronomer and sage, the house of the 
sun is always toward the East.^ 

We need not have recourse even to this explanation. The 
sun, indeed, disappears in the West; but his journey must 
necessarily be to the East, for it is from that point that lie 
always comes forth each morning. The J^ight-God must 
necessarily daily return to the place whence he started. 

The symbols of the mirror and the mystic drink are [)er- 
^ Jiainirez (h: Fiu'ii-lcal, HiaUiria, caj). xx, p. 10'2. 



THE MAGIC MIRROR. 105 

fectly familiar in Aryan sun-myths. The best known of 
the stories referring to the former is the transparent tale of 
Narcissus forced by Nemesis to fall in love with his own 
image reflected in the waters, and to j)ine away through un- 
satisfied longing; or, as Pausanias tells the story, having 
lost his twin sister (the morning twilight), he wasted his life 
in noting the likeness of his own features to those of his 
beloved who had passed away. " The sun, as he looks 
down upon his own face reflected in a lake or sea, sinks or 
dies at last, still gazing on it."^ 

Some later writers say that the drink which Quetzalcoatl 
quaffed was to confer immortality. This is not stated in 
the earliest versions of the myth. The beverage is health- 
giving and intoxicating, and excites the desire to seek 
Tlapallan, but not more. It does not, as the Soma of the 
Vedas, endow with unending life. 

Nevertheless, there is another myth which countenances 
this. view and explains it. It was told in the province of 
Meztitlan, a mountainous country to the northwest of the 
province of Vera Cruz. Its inhabitants spoke the Nahuatl 
tongue, but were never subject to the Montezumas. Their 
chief god was Tezcatlipoca, and it was said of him that on 
one occasion he slew Ometochtli (Two Rabbits), the god of 
wine, at the latter's own request, he believing that he thus 
would be rendered immortal, and that all others who drank 
of the beverage he presided over would die. His death, 
they added, was indeed like the stupor of a drunkard, who, 

^ Sir George A. Cox, The Science of Mythology and Folk Lore, p. 96. 



106 AMERICAX HERO-MYTHS. 

after his lethargy has passed, rises healthy and well. In 
this sense of renewing life after death, he presided over the 
nativ'e calendar, the count of years beginning with Tochtli, 
the Rabbit.^ Thus we see that this is a myth of the return- 
ing seasons, and of nature waking to life again after the cold 
months ushered in by the chill rains of the late autumn. 
The principle of fertility is alone perennial, while each 
individual juust perish and die. The God of Wine in 
Mexico, as in Greece, is one with the mysterious force of 
reproduction. 

No writer has preserved such numerous traditions about 
the tricks of Tezcatlipoca in Tollan, as Father Sahagun. 
They are, no doubt, almost verbally reported as he was 
told them, and as he wrote his history first in the Aztec 
tongue, they preserve all the quaintness of the original 
tales. Some of them appear to be idle amplifications of 
story tellers, while others are transparent myths. I shall 
translate a few of them quite literally, beginning with. that 
of tiie mystic beverage. 

The time came for the luck of Quetzalcoatl and the 
Toltecs to end ; for there appeared against them three sor- 
cerers, named Vitzilopochtli, Titlacauau and Tlacauepan,'^ 
who practiced many villauies in the city of Tullan. Titla- 

^ Gabriel de CliavtiS, liclacion de la Provinda de Meztitlaii, 1556, 
in the Colecion de Dociuneutds Ineditos del Archivo de Iiidias, 
Tom. IV, p. 530. 

^ Titlaciuian was tlic common name of Tezcatlipoca. " The three 
sorcerers were really Quetzalcoatl' s tliree brothers, rejtresenting the 
three other cardinal iioiiits. 



THE WILES OF TEZCATLIPOCA. 107 

canan bej^an them, assuming the disguise of an old man 
of small stature and white hairs. With this figure he 
approached the [)alace of Quetzalooatl and said to the ser- 
vants: — 

" I wish to see the King and speak to him." 

" Away with you, old man;" said the servants. "You 
cannot see him. He is sick. You would only annoy 
him." ' 

" I must see him," answered the old man. 

The servants said, " AVait," and going in, they told 
Quetzalcoatl that an old man wished to see him, adding, 
" Sire, we put him out in vain ; he refuses to leave, and 
says that he absolutely must see you." Quetzalcoatl 
answered : — 

" I^et him in. I have been waitinir his cominsr for a Ions: 
time." 

They admitted the old man and he entered the apartment 
of Quetzalcoatl, and said to him: — 

" My lord and son, how are you ? I have with me a 
medicine for you to drink." 

" You are welcome, old man," replied Quetzalcoatl. "I 
liave been looking for your arrival for many days." 

" Tell me how you are," asked the old man. " How is 
your body and your health ?" 

" I am very ill," answered Quetzalcoatl. " My whole 
body pains me, audi cannot move my hands or feet." 

Then the old man said : — 

" Sire, look at this medicine which I bring you. It is 



108 AMERICAN IIERO-MYTHS. 

good and healthful, and intoxicates him who drinks it. 
If you will drink it, it will intoxicate you, it will heal 
you, it will soothe your heart, it %vill prepare you for the 
labors and fatigues of death, or of your departure." 

"Whither, oh ancient man," asked Quetzalcoatl, 
" AVhither must I go?" 

The old man answered : — 

"■ You must without fail go to Tullan Tlapallan, where 
there is another old man awaiting you ; you and he will 
talk together, and at your return you will be transformed 
into a youth, and you will regain the vigor of your boy- 
hood." 

When Quetzalcoatl heard these words, his heart was 
shaken with strong emotion, and the old man added : — 

"My lord, drink this medicine." 

" Oh ancient man," answered the king, "I do not want to 
drink it." 

" Drink it, my lord," insisted the old man, " for if you 
do not drink it now, later you will long for it; at least, 
lift it to your fnouth and taste a single drop." 

Quetzalcoatl took the drop and tasted it, and theu quaffed 
the liquor, exclaiming : — 

" \\'hat is this? It seems something very healthful and 
wcll-tlavored. I am no lono;crsick. It has cured me. 1 
am well." 

"Drink again," said the old man. " It is a good medi- 
cine, and you will be healthier than ever." 

Again did Quetzalcoatl drink, and soon he was intoxi- 



THE TOVEYO. 109 

cated. He began to weep ; his heart was stirred, and his 
mind turned toward the suggestion of his departure, nor 
did the deceit of the okl sorcerer permit him to abandon 
the thought of it. The medicine which Quetzalcoatl drank 
was the white wine of the country, made of those magueys 
call teomeil.^ 

This was but the beginning of the guiles and juggleries of 
Tezcatlipoca. Transforming himself into the likeness of 
one of those Indians of the Maya race, called Toveyome/he 
appeared, completely nude, in the market place of Tollan, 
having green j)eppers to sell. Now Hueraac, who was 
associated with Quetzalcoatl in the sovereignty of Tollan 
(although other myths apply this name directly to Quetzal- 
coatl, and this seems the correct version),' had an only daughter 
of surpassing beauty, whom many of theToltecs had vainly 
sought in marriage. This damsel looked foi'th on the 
market where Tezcatlipoca stood in his nakedness, and her 
virginal eyes fell upon the sign of his manhood. Straight- 

^ From teotl, deity, divine, and metl, the maguey. Of the twenty- 
nine varieties of the msguey, now described in Mexico, none bears 
this name ; but Hernandez speaks of it, and says it was so called 
because there was a superstition that a person soon to die could not 
hold a branch of it ; but if he was to recover, or escape an impending 
danger, he could hold it with ease and feel the better for it. See 
Nieremberg, Hlstoria Natures, Lib. xiv, cap. xxxii. " Teomatl, 
vitae et mortis Index." 

^ Toveyome is the plural of toveyo, which Molina, in his dictionary, 
translates "foreigner, stranger." Sahagun says that it was api)lied 
particularly to the Huastecs, a Maya tribe living in the province of 
Panuco. Historia, etc.. Lib. x, cap. xxix, § 8. 

' Huemac is a compound ofuey, great, and maitl, hand. Tezozomoc, 
Duran, and various other writers assign this name to Quetzalcoatl. 



110 AMERICAN IIERO-MYTHS. 

way an unconquerable longing seized her, a love so violent 
tiiat she fell ill and seemed like to die. Her women 
told her father the reason, and he sent forth and had the 
false Toveyo brought before him. Huemac addressed 
him : — 

" Whence come you ?" 

" My lord," replied the Toveyo, "I am a stranger, and 
•I have come to sell green peppers." 

"Why," asked the king "do you not wear a maxtll 
(breech-cloth), and cover your nakedness with a garment?" 

" My lord," answered the stranger, " I follow the cus- 
tom of ray country." 

Then the king added : — 

" You have inspired in ray daughter a longing ; she is 
sick with desire; you must cure her." 

" Xay, ray lord," said the stranger, " this may not be. 
Rather slay me iiere ; I wish to die ; for I ara not Avortiiy 
to hear such words, poor as I ara, and seeking only to gain 
ray bread by selling green peppers." 

But the king insisted, and said : — 

" Have no fear ; you alone can restore my daughter ; 
you must do so." 

Thereu[)on the attendants cut the sham Toveyo's hair; 
they led him to the bath, and colored his body black ; they 
placed a nuixHi and a robe upon him, and the king said : — 

"Go in unto mv dauy-hter." 

Tezcatlipoca went in unto her, and she was healed I'rom 
that hour. 



THE FATAL FESTIVAL. Ill 

Tims did the naked stranger become the son-in-law of 
the great king of Tula. But the Toltecs were deeply 
angered that the maiden had given his black body the pre- 
ference over their bright forms, and they plotted to have 
him slain. He was placed in the front of battle, and then 
they left him alone to fight the enemy. But he destroyed 
the opposing hosts and returned to Tula with a victory all 
the more brilliant for their desertion of him. 

Then he requited their treachery with another, and pur- 
sued his intended destruction of their race. He sent a 
herald to the top of the Hill of Shouting, and through 
him announced a magnificent festival to celebrate his 
victory and his marriage. The Toltecs swarmed in crowds, 
men, women and children, to share in the joyous scene. 
Tezcatlipoca received them with simulated friendship. 
Taking his drum, he began to beat upon it, accompanying 
the music with a song. As his listeners heard the magic 
music, they became intoxicated with the strains, and yield- 
ing themselves to its seductive influence, they lost all 
thought for the future or care for the present. The locality 
to wliich the crafty Tezcatlipoca had invited them was 
called, The Rock upon the Water.' It was the summit of 
a lofty rock at the base of which flowed the river called. 
By the Rock of Light.^ When the day had departed and 
midnight approached, the magician, still singing and 

^ Texcalapan, from texcalli, rock, and apan, ujion or over the 
water. 

^ Texcaltlanhco, from texcalli, rock, tlaulli, light, and the locative 
ending co, by, in or at. 



112 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

dancing, led the intoxicated crowd to the brink of the 
river, over which was a stone bridge. This he had secretly 
destroyed, and as they came to the spot where it should 
have been and sought to cross, the innumerable crowd 
pressing one upon the other, they all fell into the water far 
below, where they sank out of sight and were changed 
into stones. 

Is it pushing symbolism too far to attempt an interpre- 
tation of this fable, recounted with all the simplicity of the 
antique world, with greater directness, indeed, than T have 
thought wise to follow ? 

I am strongly inclined to regard it as a true myth, which, 
in materialistic language, sets forth the close of the day 
and the extinction of the light. May we not construe the 
maiden as the Evening Twilight, the child of the Day at the 
close of its life ? The black lover with whom she is fatally 
enamored, is he not the Darkness, in which the twilight 
fades away? The countless crow'ds of Toltecs that come 
to the w'edding festivities, and are drowned before mid- 
night in the waters of the strangely named river, are they 
not the infinitely numerous light-rays which are quenched 
in the world-stream W'hen the sun has sunk, and the gloam- 
ing is lost in the night ? 

May we not go farther, and in this Rock of Ligiit which 
stands hard by the river, recognize the Heavenly Hill 
which rises, beside tlie World Stream ? The bright light 
of one day cannot extend to the next. The bridge is 
broken by the intervening night, and the rays are lost in 
the dark waters. 



THE POWER OF LOVE. 113 

But whether this interpretation is too venturesome or 
not, we cannot deny the deep human interest in the story, 
and its })()etic capacities. The overmastering passion of 
love was evidently as present to the Indian mind as to 
that of the raediseval Italian. In New as well as in 
Old Spain it could break the barriers of rank and over- 
come the hesitations of maidenly modesty. Love clouding 
the soul, as night 'obscures the day, is a figure of speech, 
used, I remember, by the most pathetic of Ireland's 
modern bards : — 

" Love, the tyrant, evinces, 

Alas ! an omnipotent might ; 
He treads on the necks of princes, 
He darkens the mind, like night."' ^ 

I shall not detail the many other wiles with which Tez- 
catlipoca led the Toltecs to their destruction. A mere 
reference to them must suffice. He summoned thousands 
to come to labor in the rose-garden of Quetzalcoatl, and 
when they had gathered together, he fell upon them and 
slew them with a hoe. Disguised with Huitzilopochtli, he 
irritated the people until they stoned the brother gods to 
death, and from the corrupting bodies spread a pestilential 
odor, to which crowds of the Toltecs fell victims. He 
turned the thought of thousands into madness, so that 
they voluntarily offered themselves to be sacrificed. By 
his spells all articles of food soured, and many perished of 
famine. 

At length Quetzalcoatl, wearied with misfortune, gave 

^ Clarence Mangan, Poems, "The Mariner's Bride." 



114 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

orders to burn the beautiful houses of Tollan, to bury his 
treasures, and to begin the journey to Tlapallan. He trans- 
formed the cacao trees into plants of no value, and ordered 
the birtls of rich j)himage to leave the land before him. 

The first station he arrived at was Quauhtitlan, where 
there was a lofty and spreading tree. Here he asked of 
his servants a mirror, and looking in it said : " I am 
already old." Gathering some stones,'he cast them at the 
tree. They entered the wood and remained there. 

As he journeyed, he was preceded by boys playing the 
flute. Thus he reached a certain spot, where he sat ujion a 
stone by the wayside, and wept for the loss of Tollan, 
The marks of his hands remained upon the stone, and the 
tears he dropped pierced it through. To the day of the Con- 
quest these impressions on tlie solid rock were pointed out. 

At the fountain of Cozcapan, sorcerers met him, minded 
to prevent his departure: — 

" Where are you going?" they asked. " Why have you 
left your capital ? In whose care is it ? Who will per- 
form the sacred rites?" 

But Quetzalcoatl answered : — 

" You can in no manner hinder my departure. I have 
no choice but to go." 

The sorcerers asked again : "Whither are you going?" 

"I am going," replied Quetzalcoatl, "to Tlapallan. I 
have been sent for. The Sun calls me." 

"Go, then, with good luck," said they. "But leave 
with us the art of smelting silver, of working stone and 



THE DRUNKEN GOD. 115 

wood, of painting, of weaving feathers and other such 
arts." 

Thus tliey robbed him, and taking the rich jewels he 
carried with him he cast them into the fountain, whence it 
received its name Cozcapan, Jewels in the Water. 

Again, as he journeyed, a sorcerer met him, who asked 
him his destination : — 

"I go," said Quetzaleoatl, "to Tlallapan." 

"And luck go with you," replied the sorcerer, "but 
first take a drink of this wine." 

"No," replied Quetzaleoatl, " not so much as a si^)." 

" You must taste a little of it," said the sorcerer, " even 
if it is by force. To no living person would I give to 
drink freely of it. I intoxicate them all. Come and 
drink of it." 

Quetzaleoatl took the wine and drank of it through a 

reed, and as he drank he grew drunken and fell in the 

« 

road, where he slept and snored. 

Thus he passed from place to place, with various adven- 
tures. His servants were all dwarfs or hunchbacks, and 
in crossing the Sierra Nevada they mostly froze to death. 
By drawing a line across the Sierra he split it in two and 
thus made a passage. He plucked up a mighty tree and 
hurling it through another, thus formed a cross. At 
another spot he caused underground houses to be built, 
which were called Mictlancalco, At the House of Dark- 
ness. 

At length he arrived at the sea coast where he con- 



116 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

structed a raft of serpents, and seating himself on it as in 
a canoe, he mov^ed out to sea. No one knows how or in 
what manner he reached Tlapallan.^ 

The legend which appears to have been prevalent in 
Cholula was somewhat diiferent. According to tliat, 
Quetzalcoatl was for many years Lord of Tollan, ruling 
over a happy people. At length, Tezcatlipoca let himself 
down from heaven by a cord made of spider's web, and, 
(joniing to Tollan, challenged its ruler to play a game of 
ball. The challenge was accepted, and the people of the 
city gathered in thousands to witness the sport. Suddenly 
Tezcatlipoca changed himself into a tiger, which so 
frightened the populace that they fled in such confusion 
and panic that they rushed over the precipice and into 
the river, where nearly all were killed by the fall or 
drowned in the waters. 

Quetzalcoatl then forsook Tollan, and^ journeyed from 
city to city till he reached Cholula, where he lived twenty 
years. He was at that time of light complexion, noble 
stature, his eyes large, his hair abundant, his beard ample 
and cut rounding. In life he was most chaste and honest. 
They worshiped his memory, especially for three things : 
first, because he taught them the art of working in metals, 
which previous to his coming was unknown in that land ; 
secondly, because he forbade the sacrifice either of human 

' Tlicse myths are tVoin the third book of Sahagun's HistoHa de 
las (Josas de Niieva EKpaiia. Tbey were taken down in the^original 
Nahiiatl, by him, from the mouth of the natives, and lie gives them 
word for word, as tlu'v wero recounted. 



QUETZALCOATL AT CHOLULA. 117 

beings or the lower animals, teaching that bread, and roses, 
and flowers, incense and perfumes, were all that the gods 
demanded; and lastly, because he forbade, and did his 
best to put a stop to, wars, fighting, robbery, and all deeds 
of violence. For these reasons he was held in high esteem 
and affectionate veneration, not only by those of Cholula, 
but by the neighboring tribes as well, for many leagues 
around. Distant nations maintained temples in his honor 
in that city, and made pilgrimages to it, on which journeys 
they passed in safety through their enemy's countries. 

The twenty years past, Quetzalcoatl resumed his journey, 
taking with him four of the principal youths of the city. 
When he had reached a point in the province of Guazacoalco, 
which is situated to the southeast of Cholula, he calle<l 
the four youths to him, and told them they should 
return to their city ; that he had to go further ; but that 
they should go back and say that at some future day white 
and bearded men like himself would come from the east, 
who wduld possess the land.^ 

Thus he disappeared, no one knew whither. But another 
legend said that he died there, by the seashore, and they 
burned his body. Of this event some particulars are given 
by Ixtlilxochitl, as follows :^ — 

Quetzalcoatl, surnamed Topiltzin, was lord of Tula. At 
a certain time he warned his subjects that he was obliged 

1 For this version of the myth, see Mendieta, Uistoria Eclcsiastica 
Indiana, Lib. ii, caps, r and x. 

2 Ixtlilxochitl, Belaciones Historicas, p. 388, in Kingsborough, 
vol. IX. 



118 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

to go '' to the place whence comes the Sun," but that after 
a term he would return to them, in that year of their 
calendar of the name Ce Aca^l, One Reed, which returns 
every fifty-two years. He went forth with many followers, 
some of whom he left in each city he visited. At length he 
reached the town of Ma Tlapallau. Here he announced 
that he should soon die, and directed his followers, to 
burn his body and all his treasures with him. They 
obeyed his orders, and for four days burned his corpse, 
after which they gathered its ashes and placed them in a 
sack made of the skin of a tiger. 

The introduction of the game of- ball and the tiger into 
the story is not so childish as it seems. The game of ball 
was as important an amusement among the natives of Mexico 
and Central America as were the jousts and tournaments 
in Europe in the Middle Ages.^ Towns, nations and kings 
were often pitted against each other. In the great temple 
of Mexico two courts were assigned to this game, over which 
a special deity was supposed to preside.^ In or near the 
market place of each town there were walls erected for the 
sport. In the centre of these walls was an orifice a little 

^ Torquemada gives a long but obscure'description of it. Monarquia 
Indiana, Lib. xiv, cap. xii. 

- Niereniberg. " De septuaginta et octo partibus niaximi templi 
Mexicani," in his Historia Naturcc, Lib. viii, cap. xxii (Antwerpt, 
1G35). One of these was called "The Ball Court of the Mirror," 
perhaps with special reference to this legend. " Trigesima secunda 
Tezcatlacho, locus erat ubi ludebatur pila, ex gumi olli. inter tenipla." 
The name is from tezcatl, mirror, tlachtli, the game of ball, and 
locative ending co. 



THE HEAVENLY BALL-PLAY. 119 

larger than the ball. The players were divided iuto two 
parties, and the ball having been thrown, each party tried 
to drive it throut>;ii or over the wall. The hand was not 
used, but only the hip or shoulders. 

From the earth the game was transferred to the heavens. 
As a ball, hit by a player, strikes the wall and then bounds 
back again, describing a curve, so the stars in the northern 
sky circle around the pole star and return to the place they 
left. Hence their movement was called The Ball-play of 
the Stars.^ 

A recent writer asserts that the popular belief of the 
Aztecs extended the figure to a greater game than this.- The 
Sun and Moon were huge balls with which the gods played 
an unceasing game, now one, now the other, having the 
better of it. If this is so, then the game between Tezcat- 
lipoca and Quetzalcoatl is again a transparent figure of 
speech for the contest between night and day. 

The Mexican tiger, the ocelotl, was a well recognized 
figure of speech, in the Aztec tongue, for the nocturnal 
heavens, dotted with stars, as is the tiger skin with spots.^ 
The tiger, therefore, which destroyed the subjects of Quet- 
zalcoatl — the swift-footed, happy inhabitants of Tula — 
was none other than the night extinguishing the rays of 

^ " Cltlaltlachtli,^^ from citlalin, si^ar, and tlachtli, the game of ball. 
Alvarado Tezozomoc, Cronica Mexicana, cap. lxxxii. The olisciire 
passage in which Tezozomoc refers to this is ingeniously analyzed in 
the Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 388. 

^ Anales del Museo Xacional, Tom. ii, p. 367. 

* " Segun los Anales de Ouauhtitlan el ocelotl es el cielo manchado 
de estrellas, como piel de tigre." Anales del Mas. Nac, ii, p. 254. 



120 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

the orb of light. In the picture writings Tezcatlipoca 
appears dressed in a tiger's skin, the spots on wliich rep- 
resent the stars, and tlius symbolize him in his character as 
the god of the sky at night. 

The apotheosis of Quetzalcoatl from the embers of his 
funeral pyre to the planet Venus has led several distin- 
guished students of Mexican mythology to identify his 
whole history with the astronomical relations of this bright 
star. Such an interpretation is, however, not only contrary 
to results obtained by the general science of mythology, but 
it is specifically in contradiction to the uniform statements of 
the old writers. All these agree that it was not till after 
he had finished his career, after he had run his course and 
disappeared from the sight and knowledge of men, that he 
was translated and became the evening or morning star.^ 
This clearly signifies that he was represented by the planet 
in only one, and that a subordinate, phase of his activity. 
We can readily see that the relation of Venus to the sun, 
and the evening and morning twilights, suggested the 
pleasing tale that as the light dies in the west, it is, in a 
certain way, preserved by the star which hangs so bright 
above the horizon. 

§ 4. Quetzalcoatl as Lord of the Whuls. 

As I have shown in the introductory chapter, the Light- 
God, the Lord of the East, is also master of the cardinal 
points and of the winds whicli blow iVom them, and there- 
fore of the Air. 

^ Codex Tdleriano-Remensis, plate xiv. 



THE WHEEL OF THE WINDS. 121 

This was conspicuously so with Quetzalcoatl. As a 
divinity he is most o;enerally mentioned as the God of the 
Air and Winds. He was said to sweep the roads before 
Tlaloc; god of the rains, because -in that climate heavy 
down-pours are preceded by violent gusts. Torquemada 
names him as "God of the Air," and states that in 
Cholula this function was looked upon as his chief attri- 
bute/ and the terra was distinctly applied to him Nanihe- 
hecatli, Lord of the four Winds. 

In one of the earliest myths he is called Yakualli ehecatly 
meaning " the Wheel of the Winds/'^ the winds being 
portrayed in the picture writing as a circle or wheel, with 
a figure with five angles inscribed upon it, the. sacred pen- 
tagram. His image carried in the left hand this wheel, 
and in the right a sceptre with the end recurved. 

Another reference to this wheel, or mariner's box, was in 

the shape of the temples which were built in his honor as 

god of the winds. These, we are informed, were completely 

circular, without an angle anywhere.^ 

^ Sahagun, Historia, Lib. i,- cap. v. Torquemada, Monarquia 
Indiana, Lib. vi, cap. xxiv. 

* " Que9alcoatl y por otro nombre yagtialiecatl." Ramirez de Fueii- 
leal, Historia, cap. i. YahualU is I'rom the root yaual or youal, cir- 
cular, rounding, and was applied to various objects of a circular form 
The sign of Quetzalcoatl is called by Sahagun, using the native word, 
"el I"oeZ de los Vientos" {Historia, ubi supra). 

* " Se llamau (a Quetzalcoatl) Senor de el Viento * * * ^ 
este le hacian las yglcsias redondas, sin esquina ninguna. " Codex 
Telleriann-Remensis. Parte ii, Lam. ii. Describing the sacred 
edifices of Mexico, Motolinia says : " Habio en todos los mas de estos 
grandes patios un otro templo que despues de levantada aquella capa 



122 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

Still another symbol which was sacred to him as lord of 
the four winds was the Cross. It was not the Latin bat 
the Greek cross, with four short arms of equal length. 
Several of these were -painted on the mantle which he 
wore in the picture writings, and they are occasionally 
found on the sacred jades, which bear other of his symbols. 

This has often been made use of by one set of writers 
to prove that Quetzalcoatl was some Christian teacher ; 
and by others as evidence that these native tales were of a 
date subsequent to the Conquest. But a moment's consid- 
eration of the ineanlng of this cruciform symbol as revealed 
in its native names shows where it belongs and what it 
refers to. These names are three, and their significations 
are, "The Rain-God," "The Tree of our Life," "The 
God of Streno-th."^ As the rains fertilize the fields and 
ripen the food crops, so he who sends tiiem is indeed the 
prop or tree of our subsistence, and thus becomes the giver 
of health and strength. No other explanation is needed, 
or is, in fact, allowable. 

quadrada, hecho su altar, cubriaiilo con una pared redoiida, alta y 
cubicrta con su chapital. Esto era del dios del aire, ciial dijiiuos tener 
su principal sella en Cholollan, y en toda esta provincia Labia mucho 
de estos. A este dios del aire llaniab in en su lengua Quetzalcoatl," 
Historia de los Inclios, Epistola Proemial. Compare also Herrera, 
Historia de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. ii, Lib. vii, cap. xvii, who 
describes the temple of Quetzalcoatl, in the city of Mexico, and adds 
that it was circular, ''porque asi como el Aire anda al rededor del 
Cielo, asi le hacian el Teniplo redondo." 

^ The Aztec words are Quiiihuill tentl, qniahuitl, rain, teotl, god ; 
Tonacaquahuitl, from to, our, naca, Hesh or life, quahtdtl, tree ; 
Chicahualizteotl, from chicahualizlli, strength or courage, and teotl, 
god. These names are given by Ixtlilxochitl, Historia chichimeca, 
cap. I. 



THE CEOSS SYMBOL. 123 

The winds and rains come from the four cardinal 
points. This fact was figuratively represented by a cruci- 
form figure, the ends directed toward each of these. 
The God of the Four Winds bore these crosses as one of 
his emblems. The sign came to be connected with fertility, 
reproduction and life, through its associations as a symbol 
of the rains which restore the parched fields and aid in the 
germination of seeds. Their influence in this respect is 
most striking in those southern countries where a long dry 
season is followed by heavy tropical showers, which in a 
few days change the whole face of nature, from one of 
parched sterility to one of a wealth of vegetable growth. 

As there is a close connection, in meteorology, between 
the winds and the rains, so in Aztec mythology, there 
was an equally near one between Quetzal coatl, as the 
god of the winds, and the gods of rain, Tlaloc and his 
sister, or wife, or mother, Chalchihuitlicue. According to 
one myth, these w^ere created by the four primeval brother- 
gods, and placed in the heavens, where they occupy a large 
mansion divided into four apartments, with a court in the 
middle. In this court stand four enormous vases of water, 
and an infinite number of very small slaves (the rain drops) 
stand ready to dip out the water from one or the other 
vase and pour it on the earth in showers.^ 

TlaloG means, literally, "The wine of the Earth," Hhe 

^ Ramirez de Fuenleal. Historia de los Mexicanos, cap. ii. 
2 Tlalli, earth, oc from odli, the native wine made from the mague)', 
enormous quantities of which are consumed by the lower chisses in 



124 AMERICAN HERO-MYTIIS. 

figure being that as man's heart is made glad, and his 
strength revived by the joyous spirit of wine, so is the soil 
refreshed and restored by the rains. Tlaloc tecutli, the 
Lord of the Wine of the Earth, was the proper title of the 
male divinity, who sent the fertilizing showers, and thus 
caused the seed to grow in barren places. It was he who 
gave abundant crops and saved the parched and dying 
grain after times of drought. Therefore, he was appealed to 
as the giver of good things, of corn and wine ; and the 
name of his home, TIalocan, became synonymous with that 
of the terrestrial paradise. 

His wife or sister, Chalchihuitlicue, She of the Emerald 
Skirts, was goddess of flowing streams, brooks, lakes and 
rivers. Her name, probably, has reference to their limpid 
waters.^ It is derived from chalchihuiil, a species of jade or 
precious green stone, very highly esteemed by the natives 
of Mexico and Central America, and worked by them into 
ornaments and talismans, often elaborately engraved and 
inscribed with symbols, by an art now altogether Icst." 
According to one myth, Quetzalcoatl's mother took the 
name of chalchiuiU " when she ascended to heaven ;"^ by 

Mexico at this day, and wiiich was well known to the ancients. 
Another derivation of the name is from tlalli, and onoc, being, to be, 
hence, " resident on the earth." Tiiis does not seem appropriate. 

^ From chalchihtiitl, jade, and aieitl, skirt or petticoat, witii the 
possessive prefix, ^, her. 

2 See E. G. Sijuier, Obsct^ations on a Collection of Chalvhihuitls 
from Central America, New York, 1869, and Heinricli Fischer, 
Nephrit und Jadeit nach Hirer Urgeschichtlichen und Ethnographi- 
schen Bedeutung, Stuttji;art, 1880, for a full discussion of the subject. 

^ Codex Telleriano- lieinensis, Pt. ii. Lam. ii. 



THE INVENTOR OF THE CALENDAR. 125 

another lie was engendered by such a sacred stone ; ^ and 
by all he was designated as the discoverer of the art of 
cutting and polishing them, and the patron deity of workers 
in this branch.^ 

The association of this stone and its color, a bluish green 
of various shades, with the God of Light and the Air, may 
have reference to the bine sky where he has his home, 
or to the blue and green waters where he makes his 
bed. Whatever the connection was, it was so close that the 
festivals of all three, Tlaloc, Chalchihuitlicue and Quetzal- 
coatl, were celebrated together on the same day, which was 
the first of the first month of the Aztec calendar, in Feb- 
ruary ."' 

In his character as god of days, the deity who brings 
back the diurnal suns, and thus the seasons and years, 
Quetzalcoatl was the reputed inventor of the Mexican 
Calendar. He himself was said to have been born on Ce 
Acatl, One Cane, which was the first day of the first month, 
the beginning of the reckoning, and the name of the day 
was often added to his own.^ As the count of the days 

^ See above, page 91. 

^ Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. vi, cap. x.xiv. 

^ Sahagun, Historia, Lib. ii, cap. i. A worthy but visionary Mexican 
antiquary, Don J. M. Melgar, has recognized in Aztec mythology 
th(! frequency of the symbolism which expresses the fertilizing action 
of the sky (the sun and rains) upon the earth. He thinks that in some 
of the manuscripts, as the Codex Borgia, it is represented by the rabbit 
fecundating the frog. See his Examen Comparativo entre los Signos 
Simholicos de las Teogonias y Cosmogoiiias antiguas y los que existen 
en los Manuscritos Mexicanos, p. 21 (Vera Cruz, 1872). 

* Codex Vaticanus, PI. xv. 



126 AMERICAN HERO-MYTIIS. 

really began with the beginning, it was added that Heaven 
itself was created on this same day, Ce Acatl.^ 

In some myths Quetzalcoatl was the sole framer of the 
Calendar; in others he was assisted by the first created 
pair, Cipactli and Oxomuco, who, as I have said, appear to 
represent the Sky and the Earth. A certain cave in the 
province of Cuernava (Quauhnauac) was pointed out as 
the scene of their deliberations. Cipactonal chose the first 
name, Oxomuco the second, and Quetzalcoatl the third, 
and so on in turn.^ 

In many mythologies the gods of light and warmth are, 
by a natural* analogy, held to be also the deities which 
preside over plenty, fertility and reproduction. This was 
quite markedly the case with Quetzalcoatl. His land and 
city were the homes of abundance ; his people, the Toltecs, 
" were skilled in all arts, all of which they had been taught 
by Quetzalcoatl himself. They were, moreover, very rich; 
they lacked nothing; food was never scarce and crops 
never failed. They had no need to save the small ears of 
corn, so all the use they made of them was to burn them 
in heating their baths." ^ 

As thus the promoter of fertility in the vegetable world, 
he was also the genius of reproduction in the human race. 

^ Codex Telleriano liemensis, PI. xxxiii. 

2 Mundieta, Hist. Eclesiastia Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. xiv, " Una 
tonta ficcioii," comments the worthy chronicler upon the narrative, 
" como son hvs demas que creian cerca de sus dioses." This has been 
the universal opinion. My aml)itiuii in writing this book is, that it will 
be universal no longer. 

* Sahagun, Ilistoria, Lib. in, cap. iii. 



MARRIAGE ADDRESS. 127 

The ceremonies of niarriao;e which were in use amonir the 
Aztecs were attributed to him/ and when the wife found 
she was with child it was to him that she was told to address 
her thanks. One of her relatives recited to her a formal 
exhortation, which began as follows : — 

"My beloved little daughter, precious as sapphire and 
jade, tender and generous ! Onr Lord, who dwells every- 
where and rains his bounties on whom he pleases, has 
remembered you. The God now wishes to give you the 
fruit of marriage, and has placed within you a jewel, a 
rich feather. Perhaps you have watched, and swept, and 
offered incense ; for such good works the kindness of the 
Lord has been made manifest, and it was decreed in Heaven 
and Hell, before the beginning of the World, that this ,, 

grace should be accorded you. For these reasons our 
Lord, Quetzalcoatl, who is the author and creator of things, 
has shown you this favor ; thus has resolv'ed He in heaven, 
who is at once both man and woman, and is known under 
the names Twice Master and Twice Mistress."^ | 

It is recorded in the old histories that the priests dedi- 
cated to his service wore a peculiar head-dress, imitating a 

^ Veitia, cap. svii, in Kingsborough. 

^Sahaguu, Hisforia, Lib. vi, cap. xxv. The bisexual nature of 
the Mexican gods, referred to in this passage, is well marked in many 
features of their mythology Quetzalcoatl is often addressed in the 
prayers as " father and mother," just as, in the Egyptian ritual, Chnum 
was appealed to as " father of fathers and mother of mothers" (Tiele, 
Hist, of the Egyptian Religion, p. 134). I have endeavored to ex- 
plain this widespread belief in hermaphroditic deities in my work 
entitled, The Religious Sentiment, Its Source and Aim, pp. 65-68, 
(New York, 1876). 



128 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

snail shell, and for that reason were called Qunteczizque} 
No one has explained this curiously shaped bonnet. But 
it was undoubtedly because Quetzalcoatl was the god of 
reproduction, for among the Aztecs the snail was a well 
known symbol of the process of parturition." 

Quetzalcoatl was that marvelous artist who fashions in 
the womb of the mother the delicate limbs and tender organs 
of the unborn infant. Therefore, when a couple of high rank 
were blessed with a child, an official orator visited them, 
and the baby being placed naked before him, he addressed 
it beginning with these words : — 

" My child and lord, precious gem, emerald, sapphire, 
beauteous feather, product of a noble union, you have 
been formed far above us, in the ninth heaven, where dwell 
.the two highest divinities. His Divine Majesty has fash- 
ioned you in a mould, as one fashions a ball of gold ; you 
have been chiseled as a precious stone, artistically dressed 
by your Father and Mother, the great God and the great 
Goddess, assisted by their son, Quetzalcoatl." ^ 

As he was thus the god on wliom depended the fertiliza- 
tion of the womb, sterile women made their vows to him, 
and invoked his aid to be relieved from the shame of 
barrenness.^ 

^ Diiran, in Kiiigsborough, vol. vui, p. 267. The word is from 
f/uiiitl, head or top, and tecziztU, a snail sliell. 

^ " Mettevanli in testa una lumaca marina per dimostrare que sic- 
come il piacato esce dalle pieghe di quell' osso, o conca. cosi vk ed 
esce ruomo ab utero matris suae.'''' Codice Vaticana, Tavola xxvi. 

^ Sahagun, Historia, Lib. vi, cap. xxxtv. 

' Tdrqueuiada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib, xi, cap. xxiv. 



THE TEACHER OF CHASTITY. 129 

III still another direction is this function of liis godship 
shown. The worship of the genesiao principle is as often 
characterized by an excessive austerity as by indulgence in 
sexual acts. Here we have an example. Nearly all the 
accounts tell us that Quetzalcoatl was never married, and 
that he held himself aloof from all women, in absolute 
chastity. We are told that on one occasion his subjects 
urged upon him the propriety of marriage, and to their 
importunities he returned the dark answer that, Yes, he 
had determined to take a wife ; but that it would be when 
the oak tree shall cast chestnuts, when the sun shall rise in 
the west, when one can cross the sea dry-shod, and when 
nightingales grow beards.^ 

Following the example of their Master, many of the 
priests of his cult refrained frona sexual relations, and as a 
mortification of the flesh they practiced a painful rite by 
transfixing the tongue and male member with the sharp 
thorns of the maguey plant, an austerity which, according 
to their traditions, he was the first to institute.^ There were 
also in the cities where his special worship was in vogue, 

^ Duran, in Kingsborough, vol. viii, p. 267. I believe Alva Ixtlilxo- 
chitl is the only author who specificall)^ assigns a family to Quetzalcoatl. 
This author does not mention a wife, but names two sons, one, 
Xilotzin, who was killed in war, the other, PochotI, who was educated 
by his nurse, Toxcueye, and who, after the destruction of Tollaii, 
collected the scattered Toltecs and settled with them around the Lake 
of Tezcuco {Relaciones Historicas, p. 394, in Kingsborough, vol', ix). 
All this is in contradiction to the reports of earlier and better authorities. 
For instance, Motolinia says pointedly, "no fu6 casado, ni se le 
conocio mujer " (Historia de los Indios, Epistola Proemial). 

^ Codex Vaticaims, Tab. xxii. 

9 



130 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

houses of uims, the inmates of which had vowed perpetual 
virginity, and it was said that Quetzalcoatl himself had 
founded these institutions.^ 

His connection with the worship of the reproductive 
principle seems to be further indicated by his surname, 
Ce acatl. This means One Reed, and is the name of a day 
in the calendar. But in the Nahuatl language, the word 
acatl, reed, cornstalk, is also applied to the virile member ; 
aud it has been suggested that this is the real signification 
of the word when applied to the hero-god. The sugges- 
tion is plausible,, but the word does not seem to have been 
so construed by the early writers. If such an under- 
standing had been current, it could scarcely have escaped 
the inquiries of such a close student and thorough master of 
the Nahuatl tongue as Father Sahagun. 

On the other hand, it must be said, in corroboration of 
this identification, that the same idea appears to be conveyed 
by the symbol of the serpent. One correct translation 
of the name Quetzalcoatl is " tl^e beautiful serpent ;" 
his temple in the city of Mexico, according to Tor- 
quemada, had a door in the form of a serpent's mouth; 
and in the Codex Vaticanus, No. 3738, published by 
Lord Kingsborough, of which we have an explanation 
by competent native authority, he is represented as a 
serpent; while in the same Codex, in the astrological signs 
which were supposed to control the different parts of the 
human body, the serpent is pictured as the sign of the 
^ Veitia, Jlistoria, cap. xvii. 



\ 



THE SEEPENT SYMBOL. 131 

male member.^ This indicates the probability tliat in his 
function as god of reproduction Quetzalcoatl may have 
stood in some relation to phallic rites. 

This same sign, Ce Coatl, One Serpent, used in their 
astrology, was that of one of the gods of the merchants, 
and apparently for this reason, some writers have identified 
the chief god of traffic, Yacatecutli (God of Journeying), 
with Quetzalcoatl. This seems the more likely as 
another name of this divinity was Ywiacoliuhqid, With 
the End Curved, a name which appears to refer to the 
curved rod or stick which was both his sign and one of 
those of Quetzalcoatl.^ The merchants also constantly 
associated in their prayers this deity with Huitzilopochtli, 
which is another reason for supposing their patron was one 
of the four primeval brothers, and but another manifesta- 
tion of Quetzalcoatl. His character, as patron of arts, 
the inodel of orators, and the cultivator of peaceful inter- 
course among men, would naturally lend itself to this 
position. 

1 Compare the Codex Vaticamis, No. 3738, plates 44 and 75, Kings- 
borough, Mexican Antiquities, vol. ii. 

^ Compare Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. vi, cap. xxviii, 
and Sahagun, Hisloria de Nueva Espana, Lib. ix, passim. 

Yacatecutli, is from tecutli, lord, and eiihev j/aqui, traveler, or else 
yacana, to conduct. 

YacacoUuhqui, is translated by Torquemada, "el que tieue la nariz 
aquileua." It is from yaque, a point or end, and hence, also, the nose, 
and coliuhqui, bent or curved. The translation in the text is quite 
as allowable as that of Torquemada, and more appropriate. I have 
already mentioned that this divinity was suspected, by Dr, Schultz- 
Sellack, to be merely another form of Quetzalcoatl. See alcove, 
page 81. 



132 AMEKICAN HEKO-MYTHS. 

But Quetzalcoatl, as god of the violent wind-storms, 
"which destroy the houses and crops, and as one, who, in 
liis own history, was driven from his kingdom and hjst his 
all, was not considered a deity of invariably good augury. 
His day and sign, ce acatl, One Reed, Avas of bad omen. 
A person born on it would not succeed in life.^ His plans 
and possessions would be lost, blown away, as it were, by 
the wind, and dissipated into thin air. 

Through the association of his person with the prying 
winds he came, curiously enough, to be the patron saint of 
a certain class of thieves, who stupefied their victims before 
robbing them. They applied to him to exercise his 
maleficent power on those whom they planned to deprive of 
their goods. His image was borne at the iiead of the gang 
Avhen they made their raids, ami the preferred season was 
when his sign was in the ascendant.^ This is a singular 
parallelism to the Aryan Hermes myth, as I have previously 
observed (Chap. I). 

The representation of Quetzalcoatl in the Aztec manu- 
scripts, his images and the forms of his temples and altars, 
referred to his double functions as Lord of the Light 
and the Winds. 

He was not represented with pleasing features. On the 

contrary, Sahagun tells us that his face, tiiat is, that of his 

image, was " very ugly, with a large head and a full beard." ^ 

^ SKhagun, Historia, Lib. iv, uii]). vui. 
2 Ibid, Lib. iv, cap. xxxi. 

^ "La cara que tenia fra may fea y la cabcza larga y barbiula." 
Historia, Lilj. iii, cap. iii. On tlie other hand Lxtlilxuchitl speaks of 



quetzalcoatl's return. 133 

The beard, in this and similar instances, was to represent 
the rays of the suu. His hair at times was also shown 
rising straight from his forehead, for the same reason/ 

At times he was painted with a large hat and flowing 
robe, and was then called "Father of the Sons of the 
Clonds," that is, of the rain drops.^ 

These various representations doubtless referred to him 
at different parts of his chequered career, and as a god 
under different manifestations of his divine nature. The 
religious art of the Aztecs did not demand any uniformity 
in til is respect. 

§ 5. The Return of Quetzalcoatl. 

Quetzalcoatl was gone. 

Whether he had removed to the palace prepared for him 
in Tlapallan, whether he had floated out to sea on his 
wizard raft of serpent skins, or whether his body had been 
burned on the sandy sea strand and his soul had mounted 
to the morning star, the wise men were not agreed. But 
on one point there was unanimity. Quetzalcoatl was gone; 
but he would return. 

In his own good time, in the sign of his year, when the 

ages were ripe, once more he would come from the east, 

surrounded by his fair-faced retinue, and resume the sway 

him as " de bella figura." Historia CMchimeca, cap. viii. He was 
occasionally represented with his face painted black, jjrobably express- 
ing the sun in its absence. 

^ He is so portrayed in the Codex Vaticanus. and Ixtlilxochitl says, 
" tubiese el cabello levantado desde la frente hasta la nuca como tl 
nianera de penacho." Historia CMchimeca, cap. viii. 

^ Diego Duran, Historia, in Kingsborough, viii, p. 267. 



134 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

of his people and their descendants. Tezcatlipoca had con- 
(juered, but not for aye. The immutable laws which had 
fixed the destruction of Tollan assigned likewise its restora- 
tion. Such was the universal belief among the Aztec race. 

For this reason Quetzalcoatl's statue, or one of them, 
■svas in a reclining position and covered with wrappings, 
signifying that he was absent, "as of one who lays him 
down to sleep, and that when he should awake from that 
dream of absence, he should rise to rule again the land."^ 

He was not dead. He had indeed built mansions un- 
derground, to the liord of Mictlau, the abode of the dead, 
the place of darkness, but he himself did not occupy them.'^ 
Where he passed his time was where the sun stays at night. 
As this, too, is somewhere beneath the level of the earth, 
it was occasionally spoken of as TUUapa, The Murky 
Land,^ and allied therefore to Mictlan. Caverns led down 
to it, especially one south of Chapultepec, called Cincaloo, 
" To the Abode of Abundance," through whose gloomy 
corridors one could reach the habitation of the sun and the 
happy land still governed by .Quetzalcoatl and his lieuten- 
ant Totec* 

1 Toiqueuiada, Monarqida Indiana^ Lib. vi, cap. xxiv. So in 
Egyptian mythology Tuni was called "the concealed or imprisoned 
god, in a physical sense the Sun-god in the darkness of night, not 
revealing himself, but alive, nevertheless." Tiele, History of the. 
Egyptian Religion, p. 77. 

•^ Sahagun, Ilistoria, Lib. iii. cap. ult. 

^ Mendieta, Hist. Eclesiast. Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. v. The name 
is from tlilli, something dark, obscure. 

* Sahagun, Historia, Lib. xii, cap. ix ; Duran, Historia, cap. i.xviii ; 
Tezozomoc, Crori. Mexicana, cap. cm. Sahagun and Tezozomoc 



TLAPALLAN, NEW AND OLD. 135 

But the real and proper names of that land were 
Tlapallan, the Red Land, and Tizaj)an, the White Land, for 
either of thes^e colors is that of the sun-light.^ 

It was generally understood to be the same land whence 
he and the Toltecs had come forth in ancient times ; or if 
not actually the same, nevertheless, very similar to it. 
While the myth refers to the latter as Tlapallau, it speaks 
of the former as Huey Tlapallan, Old Tlapallan, or the 
first Tlapallan. But Old Tlapallan was usually located to 
the West, where the sun disappears at night;'" while New 
Tlapallan, the goal of Quetzalcoatl's journey, was in the 
East, where the day-orb rises in the morning. The 
relationship is obvious, and is based on the similarity of 
the morning and the evening skies, the heavens at sunset 
and at sunrise. 

In his capacity as master of arts, and, at the same 
time, ruler of the underground realm, in other words, as 
representing in his absence the Sun at night, he was sup- 
posed to preside over the schools where the youth were shut 
up and severely trained in ascetic lives, previous to coming 
forth into the world. In this function he was addressed 

give the name Cincalco, To the House of Maize, i. e., Fertility, Abun- 
dance, the Paradise. Duran gives Cicalco, and translates it " casa 
de la liebre," citli, hare, calli, house, co locative. But this is, no 
doubt, an error, mistaking citli for cintli, maize. 

^ Tizapan from tizatl, white earth or other substance, and 2)aii, in. 
Mendieta, Lib. ii, cap. iv. 

^ " Huitlapalan, que es la que al presente llaman de Cortes, (pie por 
parecer vermeja le pusieron el nombre referido." Alva Ixtlilxochitl, 
Historia Chichimeca, Cap. ii. 



136 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

as Qaelzalcoail Tli/potonqid, the Dark or Black Plumed, 
and the child, on admittance, was painted this color, and 
blood drawn from his ears and offered to the god.^ 
Probably for the same reason, in many picture writings, 
both his face and body were blackened. 

It is at first sight singular to find his character and 
symbols thus in a sense reversed, but it would not be difficult 
lo quote similar instances from Aryan and Egyptian 
mythology. The sun at night was often considered to be 
the ruler of the realm of the dead, and became associated 
with its gloomy symbolism. 

Wherever he was, Quetzalcoatl was expected to return 
and resume the sceptre of sovereignty, which he had laid 
down at the instigation of Tezcatlipoca. In what cycle he 
would appear the sages knew not, but the year of the cycle 
was predicted by himself of old. 

Here appears an extraordinary coincidence. The sign 
of the year of Quetzalcoatl was, as I have said, One Reed, 
Ce Acatl. In the Mexican calendar this recurs only once 
in their cycle of fifty-two years. The myth ran that on 
some recurrence of this year his arrival was to take place. 
The year 1519 of the Christian era was the year One Reed, 
and in that year Hernan Cortes landed his army on 
Mexican soil ! 

The approach of the year had, as usual, revived the old 
superstition, and possibly some vague rumors from Yucatan 
or the Islands had intensified the dread with which the 

1 Saliagun, Lib. in, Append, cap. vii. and cf. Lib. i, cap v. The 
surname is from tlilli, black, and potonia, " emplumar A otro." 



THE LAND OF HUEMAC. 137 

Mexican emperor contemplated the possible loss of his 
sovereignty. Omens were reported in the sky, on earth 
and in the waters. Tlie sages and diviners were consulted, 
but thcjr answers were darker than the ignorance they were 
asked to dispel. Yes, they agreed, a change is to come, 
the present order of things will be swept away, perhaps by 
Quetzalcoatl, perhaps by hideous beings with face« of 
serpents, who walk with one foot, whose heads are in their 
breasts, whose huge hands serve as sun shades, and who can 
fold themselves in their immense ears.^ 

Little satisfied with these grotesque prophecies the 
monarch summoned lii^ dwarfs and hunchbacks — a class of 
dependents he maintained in imitation of Quetzalcoatl — 
and ordered them to proceed to the sacred Cave of 
Cincalco. 

" Enter its darknes," he said, " without fear. There you 
will find him who ages ago lived in Tula, who calls himself 
Huemac, the Great Hand." If one enters, he dies indeed, 
but only to be born to an eternal life in a land where food and 
wine are in perennial plenty. It is shady with trees, filled 
with fruit, gay with flowers, and those who dwell there 
know nought but joy. Huemac is king of that land, and 
he who lives with him is ever happy." 

^ The names of these mysterious beings are given by Tezozomoc as 
TezocaUi/oxique, Zenteicxiqiie and Coiyxiques. Croiiica Mexicana, 
caps, cviii and cix. 

^ Huemac, as I have already said, is stated by Sahagun to have been 
the war chief of Tula, as Quetzalcoatl was the sacerdotal head (Lib.- 
Ill, cap. v). But Duran and most writers state that it was simply 
another name of Quetzalcoatl. 



138 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

The dwarfs and hunchbacks departed on their mission, 
under the guidance of the priests. After a time they 
returned and reported that they had entered the cave and 
reached a place where four roads met. They chose that 
which descended most rapidly, and soon were accosted by 
an old man with a staflF in his hand. This was Totec, 
who led them to ''his lord Huemac, to whom they stated 
the wish of Montezuma for definite information. The 
reply was vague and threatening, and though twice after- 
wards the emperor sent other embassies, only ominous and 
obscure announcements were returned by the priests.^ 

Clearly they prefen*ed to be prophets of evil, and quite 
possibly they themselves were the slaves of gloomy fore- 
bodings. 

Dissatisfied with their reports, Montezuma determined to 
visit the underground realm himself, and by penetrating 
through the cave of Cincalco to reach the mysterious land 
where his attendants and priests professed to have been. 
For obvious reasons such a suggestion was not palatable to 
them, and they succeeded in persuading him to renounce 
the plan, and their deceptions remained undiscovered. 

Their idle tales broughtno relief to the anxious monarch, 

and at length, when his artists showed him pictures of the 

bearded Spaniards and strings of glittering beads from 

Cortes, the emperor could doubt no longer, and exclaimed : 

^ Tozozonioc, Cronica Mexicana, caps, cviii, cix; Sahagun, Historia, 
Lib. xii, cup. IX. The four roads wliich mot one on the journe\' to 
the [Tnder World are also descriljud in the Foiwl Vuh, p. 83. Each is 
of a different color, and oidy one is safe to follow. 



Montezuma's address. 139 

" Truly this is the Quetzalcoatl we expected, he who lived 
with ns of old in Tula. Undoubtedly it is he, Ce Acatl 
Inacuil, the god of One Reed, who is journeying."^ 

On his very first interview with Cortes, he addressed 
him through the interpreter Marina in remarkable words 
which have been preserved to us by the Spanish conqueror 
himself. Cortes writes : — 

"Having delivered me the presents, he seated himself 
next to me and spoke as follows : — 

" ' We have known for a long time, by the writings 
handed down by our forefathers, that neither I nor any who 
inhabit this land are natives of it, but foreigners who came 
here from remote parts. We also know that we were led 
here by a ruler, whose subjects we all were, who returned 
to his country, and after a long time came here again and 
wished to take his people away. But they had married 
wives and built houses, and they would neither go with 
him nor recognize him as their king; therefore he went 
back. We have ever believed that those who were of his 
lineage would some time come and claim this land as his, 
and us as his vassals. From the direction whence you 
come, which is where the sun rises, and from what you tell 
me of this great lord who sent you, we believe and think 
it certain that he is our natural ruler, especially since you 
say that for a long time he has known about us. There- 
fore you may feel certain that we shall obey you, and shall 
respect you as holding the place of that great lord ; and in 
^ Tezozomoc, Cronica Mexicaiia, cap. cviii. 



140 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

all the land I rule you may give what orders you wish, and 
they shall be obeyed, and everything we have shall be put 
at your service. And since you are thus in your own 
heritage and your own house, take your ease and rest from 
the fatigue of the journey and the wars you have had on 
the way.' " ^ 

Such was the extraordinary address with which the 
Spaniard, with his handful of men, was received by tlie 
most powerful war chief of the American continent. 
It confessed complete submission, without a struggle. But 
it was the expression of a general sentiment. When the 
Spanish ships for the first time reached the Mexican shores 
the natives kissed their sides and hailed the white and 
bearded strangers from the east as gods, sons and brothers 
of Quetzalcoatl, come back from their celestial home to 
claim their own on eartli and bring again the days of 
Paradise;^ a hope, dryly observes Father Mendieta, which 

^ Cortps, Carta Segunda, October 30th, 1520. According to Bornal 
Diaz Montezuma referred to the prediction several times. Historia 
Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espatta, cap. lxxxix, xc. 
The words of Montezuma are also given by Father Sahagun, Historia 
de Nueva Espatta, Lib. xii, cap. xvr. The statement of Montezuma 
that Quetzalcoatl had already returned, but had not been well received 
by the people, and had, therefore, left them again, is very interesting. 
It is a i)art of the Quetzalcoatl myth which I have not found in any 
other Aztec source. But it distinctly appears in the Kiche which I sliall 
quote on a later page, and is also in close parallelism witli the hero- 
myths of Yucatan, Peru and elsewhere. It is, to my mind, a strong 
evidence of theaccuracy of Marina's translation of Montezuma's words, 
and the fidelity of Cortes' memory. 

^ Sahagun, Historia, Lib. xii, caii. ii. 



THE PRESENTIMENT EXPLAINED. 141 

the poor Indiaus soon gave i\[> when they came to feel the 
acts of their visitors/ 

Such presentiments were found scattered through 
America. They have excited the suspicion of historians 
and puzzled antiquaries to explain. But their interpre- 
tation is simple enough. The primitive myth of the sun 
which had sunk but should rise again, had in the lapse of 
time lost its peculiarly religious sense, and had been in 
part taken to refer to past historical events. The Light-God 
had become merged in the divine culture hero. He it was 
who was believed to have gone away, not to die, for he was 
immortal, but to dwell in the distant east, whence in the 
fullness of time he would return. 

This was why Montezuma and his subjects received the 
whites as expected guests, and quoted to them prophecies 
of their coming. The Mayas of Yucatan, the Muyscas of 
Bogota, the Qquichuas of Peru, all did the same, and all 
on the same grounds — the confident hope of the return of 
r the Light-God from the under world. 

This hope is an integral part of this great Myth of 
Light, in whatever part of the world we find it. Osiris, 
though murdered, and his body cast into "the unclean 
sea," will come again from the eastern shores. Balder, 
slain by the wiles of Loki, is not dead forever, but at the 

^ " Los Indies sietnpre esperaron que se habia de cumplir aquelhi 
piofecia y cuaudo vieron venii- a los cristianos luego los llamaron 
diuses, hijos, y hermanos de Quetzalcoat!, aunque despues que 
conocieroii y experimentarou sus obras, no los tuvieroii i)or 
celedtiales." Historia Ecksiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. x. 



142 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

appointed time will appear again in nobler majesty. So in 

her divine fury sings the prophetess of the Voluspa : — 

" Shall arise a second time, 
Earth from ocean, green and fair, 
The waters el)b, the eagles fl}', 
Snatch the iish from out the flood. 

" Once again the wondrous runes, 
Golden tablets, shall be found ; 
Mystic runes by ^sir carved, 
Gods who ruled Fiolnir's line. 

"Then shall fields unseeded bear, 
111 shall flee, and Balder come, 
Dwell in Odin's highest hall. 
He and all the hapjiy gods. 

" Outshines the sun that mighty hall. 
Glitters gold on heaven's hill ; 
There shall god-like princes dwell. 
And rule for aye a happy world." 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE HERO-GODS OF THE MAYAS. 

ClVILIZATIOX OF THE MaYAS — WHENCE IT ORIGINATED — DUPLICATE 

Traditions. 

§ 1. The Culture Hero Itzamna. 

Itzamna as Ruler, Priest and Teacher — As Chief God and Creator 
OF THE World — Las Casas' Supposed Christ Myth — The Four 
Bacabs— Itzamna as Lord of the Winds and Rains— The 
Symbol of the Cross — As Lord op the Light and Day — Deriva- 
tion OF His Various Names. 

§ 2. The Culture Hero Kukulcan. 

kukulcan as connected with the calendar — meaning of the 
Name— The Myth of the Four Brothers— Kukulcan's Happy 
Rule and Miraculous Disappearance — Relation to Quet- 
zalcoatl — Aztec and Maya Mythology — Kukulcan a Maya 
Divinity — The Expected Return of the Hero-gobs— The Maya 
Prophecies — Their Explanation. 

The high-water mark of ancient American civilization 
was touched bj the Mayas, the race who inhabited the 
peninsula of Yucatan and vicinity. Its members extended 
to the Pacific coast and included the tribes of Vera Paz, 
Guatemala, and parts of Chiapas and Honduras, and had 
an outlying branch in the hot lowlands watered by the 
River Panuco, north of Vera Cruz. In all, it has been 
estimated that they numbered at the time of the Conquest 
perhaps two million souls. To them are due the vast 
structures of Copan, Paleuque and Uxmal, and they alone 
possessed a mode of writing which rested distinctly on a 
phonetic basis. 

The zenith of their prosperity had, however, been passed 

143 



144 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

a century before the Spanisli conquerors invaded their 
soil. A large part of tlie peninsula of Yucatan had been 
for generations ruled in peace by a confederation of several 
tribes, whose capital city was Mayapau, ten leagues south 
of where Merida now stands, and whose ruins still cover 
many hundred acres of the plain. Somewhere about the 
year 1440 there was a general revolt of the eastern prov- 
inces ; Mayapan itself was assaulted and destroyed, and the 
Peninsula was divided among a number of petty chieftains. 

Such was its political condition at the time of the dis- 
covery. There were numerous populous cities, well built 
of stone and mortar, but their inhabitants were at war with 
each other and devoid of unity of purpose.^ Hence they 
fell a comparatively easy prey to the conquistadors. 

Whence came this civilization? Was it an offshoot of 
that of the Aztecs? Or did it produce the latter ? 

These interesting questions I cannot discuss in full at 
this time. All that concerns my present purpose is to 
treat of them so far as they are connected with the myth- 
ology of the race. Incidentally, however, this will throw 
some light on these obscure points, and at any rate enable 
us to dismiss certain prevalent assumptions as erroneous. 

One of these is the notion that the Toltecs were the 

^ F'riincisco de Montejo, who was the first to explore Yucatan (1528), 
has left strong testimony to the majesty of its c ties and the agricultu- 
ral industry of its inhabitants. He writes to the King, in the report of 
his expedition : "La tierra es muy poblada y de muy grandes ciuda- 
des y villas muy frescas. Todos los pueblos son una huerta de fru- 
tales." Carta d su Magcstad, 18 Abril, 1529, in the Coleccion de 
Documentos Incditos del Archico de Indias, Tom. xiii. 



MYTHS OF YUCATAN. 145 

originators of Yucatan culture. I hope I have said 
enough in the previous chapter to exorcise permanently 
from ancient American history these purely imaginary 
beings. They have served long enough as the last refuge 
of ignorance. 

Let us rather ask what accounts the Mayas themselves 
gave of the origin of their arts and their ancestors. 

Most unfortunately very meagre sources of information 
are open to us, AV^e have no Sahagun to report to us the 
traditions and prayers of this strange people. Only frag- 
ments of their legends and hints of their history have been 
saved, almost by accident, from the general wreck of their 
civilization. From these, however, it is possible to piece 
together enough to give us a glimpse of their original form, 
and we shall find it not unlike those we have already 
reviewed. 

There appear to have been two distinct cycles of myths 
in Yucatan, the most ancient and general that relating to 
Itzamna, the second, of later date and different origin, 
referring to Kukulcan. It is barely possible that these 
may be diiferent versions of the same ; but certainly they 
were regarded as distinct by the natives at and long before 
the time of the Conquest. 

This is seen in the account they gave of their origin. 
They did not pretend to be autochthonous, but claimed 
that their ancestors came from distant regions, in two bands.. 
The largest and most ancient immigration was from the 
East, across, or rather through, the ocean — for thegods had 



146 AMERICAN' HERO-MYTHS. 

opened twelve paths through it — and this was conducted 
b/ the mythical civilizer Itzamnti. The second band, less 
in number and later in time, came in from the West, and 
with them was Kukulcan. The former was called the 
Great Arrival ; the latter, the Less Arrival.^ 
§ 1. The Culture Hero, Itzamnd: 

To this ancient leader, Itzamna, the nation alluded as 
their guide, instructor and civilizer. It was he who gave 
names to all the rivers and divisions of land ; he was their 
first priest, and taught them the proper rites wherewith to 
please the gods and appease their ill-will ; he was the 
patron of the healers and diviners, and had disclosed to 
them the mysterious virtues of plants ; in the month Uo 
they assembled and made new fire and burned to him 
incense, and having cleansed their books with water drawn 
from a fountain from which no woman had ever drunk, the 
most learned of the sages opened the volumes to forecast 
the character of the coming year. 

It was Itzamna who first invented the characters or 
letters in which the Mayas wrote their numerous books, 

^ Cogolludo contradicts himself in describing these events; saying 
first that the greater band came from the West, but Uiter in the same 
chapter corrects himself, and criticizes Father Lizana for having 
committed the same error. Cogolludo's authority was the original 
MSS. of Gaspar Antonio, an educated native, of royal lineage, wlio 
wrote in 1582. Historiade Yucatan^ Lib. iv, caps, nx, iv. Lizana gives 
the names of these arrivals as Nohnial and Cental. These words are 
badly mutilated. They should read noh emel [noh, great, emel, 
descent, arrival) and oea, cmcl {oeo, small). Landa supports the 
position of Cogolludo. Relacioii de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 28. It 
is he who speaks of the " doce caminos por el mar." 



ITZAMNA AS RULER. 147 

and wliich tliey carved in such profusion on the stone and 
wood of their edifices. He also devised their calendar, one 
more perfect even than that of the Mexicans, though in a 
general way similar to it.^ 

As city-builder and king, his history is intimately 
associated with the noble edifices of Itzamal, which he laid 
out and constructed, and over which he ruled, enacting wise 
laws and extending the power and happiness of his people 
for an indefinite period. 

Thus Itzamna, regarded as ruler, priest and teacher, was, 
no doubt, spoken of as an historical personage, and is so put 
down by various historians, even to the most recent.'^ But 
another form in which he appears proves him to have been 
an incarnation of deity, and carries his history from earth 
to heaven. This is shown in the very earliest account we 
have of the Maya mythology. 

^ The authorities on this phase of ItzamnA's character are Cogolludo, 
Historia de Yucatan, Lib. iv, cap. u\ ; Landa, Cosas de Yucatan, pp. 
285, 280, and Beltran de Santa Rosa Maria, Arte del Idionia Maya, p. 
16. TJie Uxtter has a particularly valuable extract from the now lost 
Maya Dictionary of F. Gabriel de San Buenaventura. "El pi-imero 
que hallo las letras de la lengua Maya 6 hizo el comijuto de los anos, 
meses y edades, y lo enseiio todo (i los Indios de esta Provincia, fue 
un Indio llamado Kinchahau, y por otro nombre Tzarani'i. Noticia 
que debemos A dicho R. F. Gabriel, y trae en su Calepino, lit. K. verb. 
Kinchahau, fol. 390, vuelt." 

2 Crescencio Carrillo, Historia Antigua de Yucatan, p. 144, 
M6rida, 1881. Though obliged to differ on many points with this 
indefatigable archaeologist, 1 must not omit to state my appreciation 
and respect for his earnest interest in the language and antiquities 
of his country. I know of no other Yucatecan who has equal enthu- 
siasm or so just an estimate of the antiquarian riches of his native land. 



148 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

For this account we are indebted to the celebrated lias 
Casas, the "Apostle of the Indians." In 1545 he sent a 
certain priest, Francisco Hernandez by name, into the pe- 
ninsula as a missionary. Hernandez had already traversed 
it as chaplain to Montejo's expedition, in 1528, and was to 
some degree familiar with the Maya tongue. After nearly 
a year spent among the natives he forwarded a report to 
Las Casas, in which, among other matters, he noted a resem- 
blance which seemed to exist between the myths recounted 
by the Maya priests and the Christian dogmas. They told 
him that the highest deity they worshiped was Izona, 
who had made men and all things. To him was born a son, 
named Bacab or Bacabab, by a virgin, Chibilias, whose 
mother was Ixchel. Bacab was slain by a certain Eopuco, 
on the day called hemix, but after three days rose from the 
dead and ascended into heaven. The Holy Ghost was 
represented by Echuac, who furnished the world with all 
things necessary to man's life and comfort. Asked what 
Bacab meant, they replied, " the Son of the Great Father," 
and Echuac they translated by " the merchant." ^ 

This is the story that a modern writer says, " ought to 
be repudiated without question."' But I think not. It is 
not difficult to restore these names to their correct forms, 
and then the fancied resemblance to Christian theology 
disappears, while the character of the original myth becomes 
apparent. 

^ Las Casas, Historia Apologetica dc las Indias Occidentales, cap. 

CXXllI. 

-John T. Short, The North Americans of Antiquity , p. 231. 



SUPPOSED CHRIST MYTH. 149 

Cogolliido long since justly construed Izona as a mis- 
reading for Izamna. Bacabab is the plural form of Bacab, 
and shows that the sons were several. We are well 
acquainted with the Bacabab. Bishop Landa tells us all 
about them. They were four in number, four gigantic 
brothers, who su})ported the four corners of the heavens, 
who blew the four winds from the four cardinal points, and 
who presided over the four Dominical signs of the Calendar. 
As each year in the Calendar was supposed to be under the 
influence of one or the other of these brothers, one Bacab 
was said to die at the close of the year; and after the 
" nameless " or intercalary days had passed the next Bacab 
would live; and as each computation of the year began on 
the day Imix, which was the third before the close of the 
Maya week, this was said figuratively to be the day of death 
of the Bacab of that year. And whereas three (or four) 
days later a new year began, with another Bacab, the one 
was said to have died and risen again. 

The myth further relates that the Bacabs were sons 

of Ix-chel. She was the Goddess of the B.aiubow, which 

her name signifies. She wjis likewise believed to be the 

guardian of women in childbirth, and one of the patrons of 

the art of medicine. The early historians, Roman and 

Landa, also associate her with Itzamna,^ thus verifying 

the legend recorded by Hernandez. 

^ Fra)' Hieronimo Roman, De la Repuhlica de las Indias Occiden- 
tales, Lib. ii, cap. xv ; Diego de Landa, Relacion de las Cosas de 
Yucatan, p. 288. Cogolludo also mentions Ix chel, Ilistoria de 
Yucatan, Lib. iv, cap. vi. The woi'd in Maya for rainbow is chel or 
cheel ; ix is the feminine prefix, which also changes the noun from the 
inanimate to the animate sense. 



150 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

That the Rainbow should be personified as wife of the 
Light-God and mother of the raiu-gods, is an idea strictly 
in accordance with the course of mythological thought in 
the red race, and is founded on natural relations too evi- 
dent to be misconstrued. The rainbow is never seen but 
during a shower, and while the sun is shining; hence it is 
always associated with these two meteorological phenomena. 

I may quote iu comparison the rainbow myth of the 
Moxos of South America. They held it to be the wife of 
Arama, their god of light, and her duty was to pour the 
refreshing rains on the soil parched by the glaring eye of 
her mighty spouse. Hence they looked upon her as 
goddess of waters, of trees and plants, and of fertility in 
general.^ 

Or we may take the Muyscas, a cultivated and interest- 
ing nation who dwelt on the lofty plateau where Bogota is 
situated. They worshiped the Rainbow under the name 
Cachaviva and personified it as a goddess, who took partic- 
ular care of those sick with fevers and of women in childbirth. 
She was also closely associated in their myth with their 
culture-hero Bochica, the story being that on one occasion, 
w^hen an ill-natured divinity had inundated the plain of 

^ " Fabula, ridicula adspersam tuperstitioue, habebant de iride. A- 
jebant illam esse Aramam feminam, solis conjugem, cujus officium 
sit terras a viro exustas iinlirium benelicio recreare. Cum euim vi- 
derent arcuin ilium non nisi pluvio tempore in conspectu venire, et 
tunc arborum cacuminibus velut insidere, persuadobant sibi aquarum 
ilium esse Prajsidem, arboresque procuras omnes sua in tutola habere." 
Franc. Xav., Eder, Descriptio Provincice Moxitarum in liegiio Fernanu 
p. 240 iHiidai. 1791). 



IXCHEL, THE RAINBOW. 151 

Bogota, Bochica appeared to the distressed inhabitants in 
company with Cuchaviva, and cleaving the mountains witii 
a blow of his golden sceptre, opened a passage for the 
waters into the valley below.^ 

As goddess of the fertilizing showers, of growth and life, 
it is easily seen how Ixchel came to be the deity both of 
women in childbirth and of the medical art, a Juno Sospita 
as well as a Juno Lucina. 

The statement is also significant, that the Bacabs were 
supposed to be the victims of Ah-puchah, the Despoiler or 
Destroyer,^ though the precise import of that character in 
the mythical drama is left uncertain.^ 

The supposed Holy Ghost, Echuac, properly Ah-Kiuic, 
Master of the Market, was the god of the merchants and 
the cacao plantations. He formed a triad with two other 
gods, Chac, one of the rain gods, and Hobnel, also a god of 

^ E. Uricoechea, Gramatica de la Lengua Chibcha, Intvod., p. xx. 
The similarity of these to the Biblical account is not to be attributed 
to borrowing from the latter, but simply that it, as they, are both the 
mythological expressions of the same natural phenomenon. In Norse 
mythology. Frcya is the rainbow goddess. She wears the bow as a neck- 
lace or girdle. It was hammered out for her by four dwarfs, the four 
winds from the cardinal points, and Odin seeks to get it from her. 
Schwartz, Ursprung der Mythologies S. 117. 

^ Eopuco I take to be from the verb pitch or puk, to melt, to dis- 
solve, to shell corn from the cob, to spoil ; hence puk, spoiled, rotten, 
podrida, and possibly ppuch, to flog, to beat. The prefix ah, signifies 
one who practices or is skilled in the action which the verb denotes. 

^ The mother of the Bacabs is given in the myth as Chibilias (or 
Chihirias, but there is no r in the Maya alphabet). Cogolludo men- 
tions a goddess Ix chebel yax, one of whose functions was to preside 
over drawing and painting. The name is from chebel, the brush used 
in these arts. But the connection is obscure. 



152 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

tJie food supply. To this triad travelers, on stopping for 
the night, set on end three stones and placed in front of 
them three flat stones, on which incense was burned. 
At their festival in the month Muan precisely three cups 
of native wine (mead) were drained by each person 
present/ 

The description of some such rites as these is, no doubt, 
what led the worthy Hernandez to suppose that the Mayas 
liad Trinitarian doctrines. When they said that the god 
of the merchants and planters supplied the wants of men 
and furnished the world with desirable things, it was but a 
slightly figurative way of stating a simple truth. 

The four Bacabs are called by Cogolludo "the gods of 
the winds." Each was identified with a particular color 
and a certain cardinal point. The first was that of the 
South. He was called Hobnil, the Belly; his color was 
yellow, which, as that of the ripe ears, was regarded as a 
favorable and promising hue; the augury of his year was 
propitious, and it was said of him, referring to some myth 
now lost, that he had never sinned as had his brothers. He 
answered to the day Kan, which was the first of the Maya 
week of thirteen days.^ The remaining Bacabs were the 

^ Landa, lielacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, pp. 150, 2G0. 

2 Liiiula, Relacion, pp. 208, 211, etc. Hobnil is the ordinary word 
for belly, stomach, from hobol, hollow. Figuratively, in these dialects 
it meant subHisteiice, life, as we use in both these senses ihe word 
" vitals." Among the Kiches of Guatemala, a tribe of Maya stock, 
we find, as terms applied to their highest divinity, u pam nleu, u pain 
aih, literally IJelly of the Earth, Belly of the Sky, meaning that by 
which <;\rili and sky exist. Popol Vuh, p. 832. 



NAMES OF ITZAMNA. 153 

Red, assigned to the East, the White, to the North, and the 
Black, to the West, and the winds and rains from those 
directions were believed to be under the charge of these 
giant caryatides. 

Their close relation with ItzamnA is evidenced, not only 
in the fragmentary myth preserved by Hernandez, but 
(|uite amply in the descriptions of the rites at the close 
of each year and in the various festivals during the year, 
as narrated by Bishop Landa. Thus at the termina- 
tion of tlib year, along with the sacrifices to the Bacab of 
the year were others to Itzamnii, either under his surname 
Canil, which has various meanings,^ or as Kinich-ahau, 
Lord of the Eye of the Day,^ or Yax-eoc-ahmut, the first 
to know and hear of events,^ or finally as UaG-mUun-ahau, 
Lord of the Wheel of the Months." 

The word bacab means "erected," "set up.'"' It was 

^Can, of which the "determinative" form is canil, may mean a 
serpent, or the yellow one, or the strong one, or he who gives gifts, or 
the converser. 

^ Kin, the day ; ich, eye ; ahau, lord. 

* Yax, first; coc, which means literally deaf, and hence to listen at- 
tentively (whence the namp Cocomes, for the ancient royal family of 
Chichen Itza, an appellation correctly translated " escuchadorcs " ) 
and ah-mut, master of the news, mut meaning ilews, good or bad. 

* Uac, the months, is a rare and now obsolete form of the plural of u, 
month, ^-Uac, i. e. u, por meses y habla de tiumpo pasado." • Die- 
Clonal io Maya- Espailol del Conveuto de Motal, MS. Metim (Landa, 
mitun) is from met, a wheel. The calendars, both in Yucatan and 
Mexico, were represented as a wheel. 

*The Dicdonario Maya del Convento de Motul, MS., the only dic- 
tionary in which I find the exact word, translates hacab by " represen- 
taute, juglar, bufon." This is no doubt a late meaning taken from the 



154 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

applied to the Bacabs because they were imagined to be 
enormous giants, standing like pillars at the four corners of 
the earth, supporting the heavens. In this sense they were 
also called chac, the giants, as the rain senders. They were 
also the gods of fertility and abundance, who watered the 
crops, and on whose favor depended the return of the har- 
vests. They presided over the streams and wells, and were 
the divinities whose might is manifested in the thunder and 
lightning, gods of the storms, as well as of the gentle 
showers.^ The festival to these gods of the hardest was in 
the mouth Mac, which occurred in the early spring. In 
this ceremony, Itzamna was also worshiped as the leader of 
the Bacabs, and an important rite called " the extinction of 
the fire " was performed. " The object of these sacrifices 
and this festival," writes Bishop Landa, " was to secure an 
abundance of water for their crops." ^ 

These four Chac or Bacabab were worshiped uuder the 

scenic representations of the supposed doings of the gods in the ritual 
ceremonies. The proper form of the word is uacab or vacab, which 
the dictionary mentioned renders " cosa que esta en pi6 6 enhiesta 
delante de otra." The change from the initial v to b is quite com- 
mon, as may be seen by comparing the two letters in Pio Perez's Die- 
donario de la Leugua Mai/a, e. g. balalc, the revolution of a wheel, 
from ualak, to turn, to revolve. 

^ The entries in the Diccionario Maya- Espanol del Cunrcnto de 
Motid, MS., are as follows: — 

" Chaac: gigante, hombre de grande estatura. 

" Chaac : fu6 un hombre asi grande que enseno la agricultura, al cual 
tuvieron despues por Dios de los panes, del agua, de los truenos y re- 
liimpagos. Y asi se dice, haj chaac, el rayo : m Icmba chaac el relam • 
pago ; u pec chaac, el trueno," etc. 

'^ Eelaciov, etc.,p. 255. 



THE CROSS SYMBOL. 155 

symbol of the cross, the four arms of which represented the 
four cardinal points. Both in language and religious art, 
this was regarded as a tree. In the Maya tongue it was 
called "the tree of bread," or "the tree of life."^ The 
celebrated cross of Palenque is one of its representations, as 
I believe I was the first to point out, and has now been 
generally acknowledged to be correct.^ There was another 
such cross, about eight feet high, in a temple on the island of 
Cozumel. This was worshiped as " the god of rain," or 
more correctly/ as the symbol of the four rain gods, the 
Bacabs. In periods of drought offerings were made to it 
of birds (symbols of the winds) and it was sprinkled with 
water. " When this had been done," adds the historian, 
"they felt certain that the rains would promptly fall."^ 

^ The M;iya word is uahomche, from nah, originally the tortilla or 
maize cake, now used for bread generally. It is also current in the 
sense of life ("la vida en ciei'ta manera," Diccionario Maya Espanol 
del Convento de Motul, MS.)- Che is the generic word for tree. I 
cannot find any particular tree called Homche. Horn was the name 
applied to a wind instrument, a sort of trumpet. In the Codex 
Troano, Plates xxv, xxvii, xxxiv, it is represented in use. The four 
Bacabs were probably imagined to blow the winds from the four 
corners of the earth through such instruments. A similar represent- 
ation is given in the Codex Borgiaaus, Plate xiii, in Kingsborough. 
As the Chac was the god of bread, Dios de los panes, so the cross was 
the tree of bread. 

* See the Myths of the Neio Woi'ld, p. 9-5 (1st ed., New York, 
1868). This explanation has since been adopted by Dr. Carl Schultz- 
Sellack, although he omits to state whence he derived it. His article 
is entitled Die Amerikanischen Gotter der Vier Weltgegenden und ihre 
Tempcl in Palenque in the Zeitschriftfiir Ethnologic, 1879, Compare 
also Charles Rau, The Palenque Tablet, p. 44 (Washington, 1879). 

^ " Al pie de aquella misma torre estaba un cercado de piedra y cal, 
muy bien lucido y almenado, en medio del cual habia una cruz de cal 



156 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

Each of the four Bacabs was also called Acantun, which 
means " a stone set up," such a stone being erected and 
painted of the color sacred to the cardinal point that the 
Bacab represented.^ Some of these stones are still found 
among the ruins of Yucatecan cities, and are to this day 
connected by the natives with reproductive signs.^ It is 
probable, however, that actual phallic worship was not 
customary in Yucatan. The Bacabs and Itzamua were 
closely related to ideas of fertility and reproduction, indeed, 
but it appears to have been especially as gods of the rains, 
the harvests, and the food supply generally. The Spanish 
writers were eager to discover all the depravity possible in 
the religion of the natives, and they certainly would not 
have missed such an opportunity for their tirades, had it 
existed. As it is, the references to it are not piany, and not 
clear. 

From what I hav^e now presentetl we see that Itzamna 

tan alta comp diez palmos, & la cual tenian y adoraban por dios de la 
lluvia, porque quando no Uovia y Labia falta de agua, iban d ella en 
procesion y rauy devotos ; ofrescianle codoruices sacrificadas por 
aplacarle la ira y enojo con que ellos tenia 6 mostraba tener, con la 
sangre de aquella simple avezica." Francisco Lopez de Gomara, 
Conqnistade Mejico, p. 305 (Ed. Paris, 1852). 

^ The feasts of the Bacabs Acantun are described in Landa's work. 
The name he does not explain. I take it to be acaan, past participle 
of acfdl, to erect, and tun, stone. But it may have another meaning. 
The word acan meant wine, or rather, mead, the intoxicating hydromel 
the natives tnanufactured. Tiie god of this drink also Ijore the name 
Acan ("Acan; el Dios del vino que es Baco," Diccionario del 
Convento de Motul, MS.). It would be quite appropriate for the 
Bacabs to be gods of wine. 

* Stephens, Travels in Yucatan, Vol. i, p. 434. 



ITZAMNA AS LIGHT-GOD. 157 

came from the distant east, beyond the ocean marge ; that 
he was the teacher of arts and agriculture ; that he, more- 
over, as a divinity, ruled the wit>ds and rains, and sent at 
his will harvests and prosperity. Can we identify him 
further with that personification of Light which, as we 
have already seen, was the dominant figure in other 
American mythologies ? 

This seems indicated by his names and titles. They were 
many, some of which I have already analyzed. That by 
which he was best known was Itzamnd, a word of contested 
meaning but which contains the same radicals as the 
words for the morning and the dawn,^ and points to his 
identification with the grand central fact at the basis of all 
these mythologies, the welcome advent of the light in the 
eastern horizon after the gloom of the night. 

^ Some have derived Itzamua from i, grandson by a son, used only 
by a female; zamal, morning, morrow, from zam, before, early, 
related to yam, first, whence also zamalzam, the dawn, the aurora ; 
and nd, mother. Without the accent na means house. Crescendo 
Carrillo prefers the derivation from i^s, anything that trickles in drops, 
as gum from a tree, rain or dew from the sky, milk from teats, 
and semen ("leche de amor," Dicc.de Motul, MS.). He says: 
" Itzamna, esto es, rocio diario, 6 sustancia cuotidiana del cielo, es el ' 
mismo nombre del fundador (de Itzamal).'' Uistoria Antigua de 
Yucatan, p. 145. (M6rida, 1881.) This does not explain th-fe last 
syllable, nd, which is always strongly accented. It is said that Itzamni'i 
spoke of himself only in the words liz en caan, "I am that which 
trickles from the sky ; " Itz en rnuyal, " I am that which trickles from 
the clouds." This plainly refers to his character as a rain god. 
Lizana, Uistoria de Yucatan, Lib. i, cap. 4. If a compound of itz, 
amal, nd, the name, could be translated, '' the milk of the mother of 
the morning," or of the dawn, i. e., the dew; while i, zamal, n& 
would be ''son of the mother of the morning." 



158 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

His next most frequent title was Kin-ich-ahau, which 
may be translated either, " Lord of the Sun's Face," 
or, " The Lord, the Eye of the Day." ^ As such he was 
the deity who presided in the Sun's disk and shot forth his 
scorching rays. There was a temple at Itzamal consecrated 
to him as Kin-ich-kak-mo, " the Eye of the Day, the Bird 
of Fire." ^ In a time of pestilence the people resorted to 
this temple, and at high noon a sacrifice was spread upon 
the altar. The moment the sun reached the zenith, a bird 
of brilliant plumage, but which, in fact, was nothing else 
than a fiery flame shot from the sun, descended and consumed 
the offering in the sight of all. At Campeche he had a 
temple, as Kin-ich-ahau-haban, " the Lord of the Sun's 
face, the Hunter," where the rites were sanguinary.^ 

Another temple at Itzamal was consecrated to him, under 
one of his names, Kahil, He of the Lucky Hand,* and the 

^ Cogolludo, who makes a distinction between Kinich-ahau and 
Itzamna (Hist, de Yucatan, Lib. iv, cap. via), may be corrected by 
Landa and Buenaventura, whom I have already quoted. 

^ Kin, the sun, the day ; ich, the face, but generally the eye or eyes ; 
kak, fire ; mo, the brilliant plumaged, sacred bird, the ara or guaca- 
maya, the red macaw. This was adopted as the title of the ruler of 
Itzamal, as we learn from the Chronicle of Chichen Itza — "Ho ahau 
paxci u cah yahau ah Itzmal Kinich Kaknio " — " In the fifth Age the 
town (of Chichen Itza) was destroyed by King Kinich Kakmo, o^ 
Itzamal.'" El Libra de Chilm Balamde Chumayel, MS. 

* Cogolludo, Uistoria de Yucatan, Lib. iv, cap. viii. 

* Lizana says : " Se llama y nombra Kab-ul que quiere decir mano 
obradora," and all writers have followed him, altiioiigh no such 
meaning can be made out of the name thus written. The proper word 
is kabil, which is defined in the Diccionario del Convento de Motid, 
MS., " el que tiene buena mano para sembrar, 6 para poner colmenas, 
etc." Landa also gives this orthography, Relacion, p. 216. 



KUKULCAN. 159 

sick were brought there, as it was said that he had cured 
many by merely touching them. This fane was extremely 
popular, and to it pilgrimages were made from even such 
remote regions as Tabasco, Guatemala and Chiapas. To 
accommodate the pilgrims four paved roads had been 
constructed, to the North, South, East and West, straight 
toward the quarters of the four winds. 

§ 2. The Culture Hero, Kukulcan. 

The second important hero-myth of the Mayas was that 
about Kukulcan. This is in no way connected with that 
of Itzamna, and is probably later in date, and less national 
in character. Tiie first reference to it we also owe to 
Father Francisco Hernandez, whom I have already quoted, 
and who reported it to Bishop Las Casas in 1545. His 
words clearly indicate that we have here to do with a myth 
relating to the formation of the calendar, an opinion which 
can likewise be supported from other sources. 

The natives affirmed, says Las Casas, that in ancient 
times there came to that land twenty men, the chief of 
whom was called " Cocolcan," and him they spoke of as 
the god of fevers or agues, two of the others as gods of 
fishing, another two as the gods of farms and fields, another 
was the thunder god, etc. They wore flowing robes and 
sandals on their feet, they had long beards, and their heads 
were bare. • They ordered that the people should confess 
and fast, and some of the natives fasted on Fridays, because 
on that day the god Bacab died ; and the name of that day 



160 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

in their language is himix, which they especially honor and 
hold in reverence as the day of the death of Bacab.^ 

In the manuscript of Hernandez, which Las Casas 
had before him when he was writing his Apologetical 
History, the names of all the twenty were given ; but 
unfortunately for antiquarian research, the good bishop 
excuses himself from quoting them, on account of their 
barbarous appearance. I have little doubt, however, that 
had he done so, we should find them to be the names of the 
twenty days of the native calendar month. These are the 
visitors who come, one every morning, with flowing robes, 
full beard and hair, and bring with them our good or bad 
luck — whatever the day brings forth. Hernandez made 
the same mistake as did Father Francisco de Bobadilla, 
when he inquired of the Nicaraguaus the names of their 
gods, and they gave him those of the twenty days of the 
month.^ Each day was, indeed, personified by these 
nations, and supposed to be at once a deity and a date, 
favorable or unfavorable to fishing or hunting, planting 
or fighting, as the case might be. 

Kukulcan seems, therefore, to have stood in the same 
relation in Yucatan to the other divinities of the days as 
did Votan in Chiapa and Quetzalcoatl Ce Acatl inCholula. 

His name has usually been supposed to be a compound, 
meaning " a serpent adorned with feathers," but there are 
no words in the Maya language to justify such a rendering. 

1 Las Casas, Historia Apologetica de las Indias Occidentahs, cap. 

CXXIII. 

^ Oviedo, Historia General de las Jndias, Lib. xlh, cap. in. 



MEANING OF KUKULCAN. 161 

There is some variation in its orthography, and its original 
pronunciation may possibly be lost; but if we adopt as 
correct the spelling which I have given above, of which, 
however, I have some doubts, then it means, '^ The God 
of the Mighty Speech."^ 

The reference probably was to the fame of this divinity 
as an oracle, as connected with the calendar. But it is true 
that the name could with equal correctness be translated 
" The God, the Mighty Serpent," for can is a homonym 
with these and other meanings, and we are without 
positive proof which was intended. 

To bring Kukulcan into closer relations with otiier 
American hero-gods we must turn to the locality where he 
was especially worshiped, to the traditions of the ancient 
and opulent city of Chichen Itza, whose ruins still rank 
among the most imposing on the peninsula. The frag- 
ments of its chronicles, as preserved to us in the Books 
of Chilan Balam and by Bishop Landa, tell us that its 

^ Eligio Ancona, after giving the rendering, " serpiente adornada de 
l)liiraas," adds, "ha sido repetido por tal ndmero de etimologistas que 
tendremos neeesidad de aceptarhi, aunque nos pareee un poco 
violento," Historia de Yucatan, Vol. i, p. 44. The Ab)36 Brasseur, 
in his Vocabulaire Maya, boldly states that kukul means " emplumado 
6 adornado con plumas." This rendering is absolutely without 
authority, either modern or ancient. The word for feathers in Maya 
is kukum; kul, in composition, means "very" or "much," as ^^ kul- 
viiiic, muy hombre, hombre de respeto 6 hecho," Diccionario de 
Motul, MS. Ku is god, divinity. For can see p. 153. Can was and 
still is a common surname in Yucatan. (Berendt, Nombres Froprios 
en Lengiia Maya, MS.) 

I should prefer to spell the name KukuUcan, and have it refer to the 
first day of the Maya week, Kan. 
11 



162 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

site was first settled bv four bands who came from the 
four cardinal points and were ruled over by four brothers. 
Tiiese brothers chose no wives, but lived chastely and ruled 
righteously, until at a certain time one died or departed, 
and two began to act unjustly and were put to death. 
The one remaining was Kukulcan. He appeased the 
strife which his brothers' acts had aroused, directed the 
minds of the people to the arts of peace, and caused to 
be built various important structures. After he had com- 
pleted his work in Chichen Itza, he founded and named 
the great city of Mayapan, destined to be the capital of the 
confederacy of the Mayas. In it was built a temple in his 
honor, and named for him, as there was one in Chichen 
Itza. These were unlike others in Yucatan, having circu- 
lar walls and four doors, directed, presumably, toward the 
four cardinal points.^ 

In gratifying confirmation of the legend, travelers do 
actually find in Mayapan and Chichen Itza, and nowhere 
else in Yucatan, the ruins of two circular temples with 
doors opening toward the cardinal points." 

Under the beneficent rule of Kukulcan, the nation 
enjoyed its halcyon days of peace and prosperity. The 
harvests were abundant and the people turned cheerfully 
to their daily duties, to their families and their lords. They 
ibrgot the use of arms, even for the chase, and contented 
themselves with snares and traps. 

^ El Libro de Chilan Balam de Chttmai/el, MS. ; Landa, Eelacion, 
]ip. 34-38, and 299 ; Henrra, Historia de las Indias, Dec. iv, Lib. 
X, cap u. 

* Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Vucatan, Vol. ii, p. 298. 



DEPARTURE OF KUKULCAN. 163 

At length the time drew near for Kukulcan to depart. 
He gathered the chiefs together and expounded to them his 
laws. From among them he chose as his successor a member 
of the ancient and wealthy family of the Cocoms. His 
arrangements completed, he is said, by some, to have jour- 
neyed westward, to Mexico, or to some other spot toward the 
sun-setting. But by the people at large he was confidently 
believed to have ascended into tiie heavens, and there, from 
his lofty house, he was supposed to watch over the interests 
of his faithful adherents. 

Such was the tradition of their mythical hero told by the 
Itzas. No wonder that the early missionaries, many of 
whom, like Landa, had lived in Mexico and had become 
familiar with the story of Quetzalcoatl and his alleged 
departure toward the east, identified him with Kukulcan, and 
that, following the notion of this assumed identity, numerous 
later writers have framed theories to account for the civili- 
zation of ancient Yucatan through colonies of " Toltec " 
immigrants. 

It can, indeed, be shown beyond doubt that there were 
various points of contact between the Aztec and Maya 
civilizations. The complex and artificial method of reckon- 
ing time was one of these ; certain architectural devices were 
others; a small number of words, probably a hundred all 
told, have been borrowed by the one tongue from the other. 
Mexican merchants traded with Yucatan, and bands of Aztec 
warriors with their families, from Tabasco, dwelt in Mayapan 
by invitation of its rulers, and after its destruction, settled 



164 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

in the province of Caniil, on tlie western coast, where they 
lived strictly separate from the Maya-speaking population 
at the time the Spaniards conquered the country.^ 

But all this is very far from showing that at any time a 
race speaking the Aztec tongue ruled the Peninsula. There 
are very strong grounds to deny this. The traditions which 
point to a migration from the west or southwest may well 
have referred to the depopulation of Palenque, a city which 
undoubtedly was a product of Maya architects. The 
language of Yucatan is too absolutely dissimilar from the 
Nahuatl for it ever to have been moulded by leaders of 
that race. The details of Maya civilization are markedly 
its own, and show an evolution peculiar to the people and 
their surroundings. 

How far they borrowed from the fertile mythology of 
their Nahuatl visitors is not easily answered. That the 
circular temple in Mayapan, with four doors, specified by 
Landa as different from any other in Yucatan, was erected 
to Quetzalcoatl, by or because of the Aztec colony there, 
may plausibly be supposed when we recall how peculiarly this 
form was devoted to his worship. Again, one of the Maya 
chronicles — that translated by Pio Perez and published by 
Stephens in his Travels in Yucatan — opens with a distinct 
reference to Tula and Xonoal, names inseparable from the 
Quetzalcoatl myth. A statue of a sleeping god holding 
a vase was disinterred by Dr. Le Plongeon atChicheu Itza, 

^ El Libro de Chilau Balam de Chumai/el, MS. ; Landa, lielacion, 
p. 54. 



THE LORD OF THE VASE. 165 

and it is too entirely similar to others found at TIaxcala 
and near the city of Mexico, for us to doubt but that they 
represented the same divinity, and that the god of rains, 
fertility and the harvests.^ 

The version of the tradition which made Kukulcan 
arrive from the ^Yest, and at his disappearance return to 
the West — a version quoted by Lauda, and which evi- 
dently originally referred to the westward course of the 
sun, easily led to an identification of him Avith the Aztec 
Quetzalcoatl, by those acquainted with both myths. 

The probability seems to be that Kukulcan was an 
original Maya divinity, one of their hero-gods, whose 
myth had in it so many similarities to that of Quetzal- 
coatl that the priests of the two nations came to regard 
the one as the same as the other. After the destruction of 
Mayapan, about the middle of the fifteenth century, when 
the Aztec mercenaries were banished to Canul, and the 
reigning family (the Xiu) who supported them became 
reduced in power, the worship of Kukulcan fell, to some 

^ I refer to tlie statue which Dr. LePlongeoii was pleased to name 
" Chac Mool." See the Estudio acerca de laEstatna Uamaia Chac- 
Mool 6 rey tigre, by Sr. Jesus Sanchez, in the Aiiales del Museo 
Nadonal de Mexico, Tom. i. p. 270. There was a divinity worshiped 
in Yucatan, called Cum-ahau, lord of the vase, whom the Diccionario 
de Motid, MS. terms, "Lucifer, principal de los demonios." The 
name is also given by Pio Perez in his manuscript dictionary in my 
possession, but is omitted in the printed copy. As Lucifer, the morn- 
ing star, was identified with Quetzalcoatl in Mexican mythology, and 
as the word cum, vase, Aztec comitl, is the same in both tongues, there 
is good ground to suppose that this lord of the vase, the "prince of 
devils," was the god of fertility, common to both cults. 



166 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

extent, into disfavor. Of this we are informed by Landa, 
in an interesting })assage. 

He tells ns that many of the natives believed that 
Kukulcan, after his earthly labors, had ascended into 
Heaven and become one of their gods. Previous to the 
destruction of Mayapan temples were built to him, and 
he was worshiped throughout the land, but after that 
event he was paid such honor only in the province of 
Mani (governed by the Xiu). Nevertheless, in gratitude 
for what all recognized they owed to him, the kings of 
the neighboring provinces sent yearly to Mani, on the 
occasion of his annual festival, which took place on the 
16th of the month Xul (November 8th), either four or five 
magnificent feather banners. These were placed in his 
temple, with appropriate ceremonies, such as fasting, the 
burning of incense, dancing, and with simple offerings of 
food cooked without salt or pepper, and drink from beans 
and gourd seeds. This lasted five nights and five days; 
and, adds Bishop Landa, they said, and held it for certain, 
that on the last day of the festival Kukulcan himself 
descended from Heaven and personally received the sacri- 
fices and offerings which were made in his honor. The 
celebration itself was called the Festival of the Founder,^ 
with reference, I suppose, to the alleged founding of the 
cities of Mayapan and Chichen Itza by this hero-god. 

^ " Ijlain.'iban a esta fiesta Chic Kaba» ;'''' Laiula, Rdacion, p. 302. 
I take it this should read Chile ii Kaba {Chiic; fiindar 6 poblar 
altriina cosa, casa, pueblo, etc. Diccionario de Motul, MS.) 



THE MAYA PEOPHECIES. 167 

The five clays and five sacred banners again bring to mind 
the close relation of this with the Quetzalcoatl symbolism. 

As Itzamnil had disappeared without undergoing the 
pains of death, as Kukulcan had risen into the heavens and 
thence returned annually, though but for a moment, on the 
last day of the festival in his honor, so it was devoutly 
believed by the Mayas that the time would come when the 
worship of other gods should be done away with, and these 
mighty deities alone demand the adoration of their race. 
None of the American nations seems to have been more 
given than they to prognostics and prophecies, and of none 
other have we so large an amount of this kind of literature 
remaining. Some of it has been preserved by the Spanish 
missionaries, who used it with good effect for their own 
purposes of proselyting ; but that it was not manufactured 
by them for this purpose, as some late writers have 
thought, is proved by the existence of copies of these 
prophecies, made by native writers themselves, at the time 
of the Conquest and at dates shortly subsequent. 

These prophecies were as obscure and ambiguous as all 
successful prophets are accustomed to make their predic- 
tions; but the one point that is clear in them is, that they 
distinctly referred to the arrival of white and bearded 
strangers from the East, who should control the laud and 
alter the prevailing religion.^ 

1 Nakuk Pech, Concixta yeld mapa, 1562. MS. ; El Libro de 
Chilan Balam de Mani, 1595, MS. The former is a history of the 
Conquest written in Maya, by a native noble, who was an adult at the 
time that Merida was founded (1542). 



168 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

Even that portion of tlie Itzas who liad separated from 
the rest of their nation at the time of tlie destruction of 
Mayapan (about 1440-50) and wandered off to tlie fiir 
south, to establish a powerful nation around Lake Peten, 
carried with them a forewarning that at the "eighth age" 
they should be subjected to a white race and have to 
embrace their religion ; and, sure enough, when that time 
came, and not till then, that is, at the close of the seven- 
teenth century of our reckoning, they were driven from 
their island homes by Governor Ursua, and their numerous 
temples, filled with idols, leveled to the soil.^ 

The ground of all such prophecies was, I have no doubt, 
the expected return of the hero-gods, whose myths I have 
been recording. Both of them represented in their origi- 
nal forms the light of day, which disappears at nightfall 
but returns at dawn with unfailing certainty. When the 
natural phenomenon had become lost in its personification, 
this expectation of a return remained and led the priests, 
who more than others retained the recollection of the 
ancient forms of the myth, to embrace this expectation in 
the prognostics which it was their custom and duty to 
j)ronounce with reference to the future. 

' Juan de Villagutierre Sotomayor, Historia tie la Provincia de el 
7/2a, passim (Madrid, 1701). 



CHAPTER V. 

THE QQUICHUA HERO-GOD VIRACOCHA. 

V'iRAcocHA AS THE FiusT Cause— His Name, Illa Ticci— Qqi'ichua 
Prayers — Other Names and Titles of Viracocha— His Worship 
A True Monotheism — The Myth of the Four Brothers — Myth op 
THE Twin Brothers. 

Viracocha as Tunapa, He who Perfects — Various Incidents in 
His Life — Relation to Manco Capac — He Disappears in the West. 

Viracocha Rises from Lake Titicaca and Journeys to the West — 
Derivation of His Name— He was Represented as White and 
Bearded— The Myth of Con and Pachacamac — Contice Viraco- 
cha — Prophecies of the Peruvian Seers — The White Men Called 
Viracochas — Similarities to Aztec Myths. 

The most majestic empire on this continent at the time 
of its discovery was that of the Incas. It extended along 
the Pacific, from the parallel of 2° north latitude to 20° 
sonth, and may be roughly said to have been 1500 miles 
in leno;th, with an averag-e width of 400 miles. The 
official and principal tongue was the Qquichua, the two 
other languages of importance being the Yunca, spoken by 
the coast tribes, and the Aymara, around Lake Titicaca and 
south of it. The latter, in phonetics and in many root- 
words, betrays a relationship to the Qquichua, but a 
remote one. 

The Qquichuas were a race of considerable cultivation. 
They had a developed metrical system, and were especially 
fond of the drama. Several specimens of their jjoetical 
and dramatic com})ositions have been preserved, and indi- 
cate a correct taste. Although they did not possess a 

169 



170 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

method of writing, they liad various mnemonic aids, by 
which they were enabled to recall their verses and their 
historical traditions. 

In the mythology of the Qquichuas, and apparently also 
of the Aymaras, the leading figure is Viracocha. His august 
presence is in one cycle of legends that of Infinite Creator, 
the Primal Cause; in another he is the beneficent teacher 
and wise ruler; in other words, he too, like Quetzalcoatl 
and the others whom I have told about, is at onetime God, 
at others the incarnation of God. 

As the first cause and ground of all things, Viracocha's 
distinctive epithet was Tied, the Cause, the Beginning, or 
Ilia tied, the Ancient Cause,^ the First Beginning, an 
endeavor in words to express the absolute priority of his es- 
sence and existence. He it was who had made and moulded 
theSun and endowed it with a portion of his own divinity, to 
wit, the glory of its far-shining rays; he had formed the 
Moon and given her light, and set her in the heavens to 
rule over the waters and the winds, over the queens of the 
earth and the parturition of women ; and it was still he, the 
great Viracocha, who had created the beautiful Chasca, the 
•Aurora, the Dawn, goddess of all unspotted maidens like 
herself, her who in turn decked the fields and woods with 
flowers, whose time was the gloaming and the twilight, 

^ " 7^/fici, origen, priiicipio, fundamento, ciraiento, causa. Ylla; {o- 
(lo lo que es antij^uo." Holguin, Focabvlario de la Leiigva Qquichua 
6 del Iiif/n (Ciudad do los Reyes, 1(308). Tied is not to be confounded 
with aticsi, he conquers, from (ttini, I conquer, a term also occasionally 
applied to Viracocha. 



ILLA TICCI VIRACOCHA. 171 

whose messengers were the fleecy clouds which sail through 
the sky, and who, when she shakes her clustering hair, 
drops noiselessly pearls of dew on the green grass fields.^ 

Invisible and incorporeal himself, so, also, were his 
messengers (the light-rays), called huaminca, the faithful 
soldiers, and hayhuaypanti, the shining ones, who conveyed 
his decrees to every part.^ He himself was omnipresent, 
imparting motion and life, form and existence, to all that 
is. Therefore it was, says an old writer, with more than 
usual insight into man's moral nature, with more than 
usual charity for a persecuted race, that when these natives 
worshiped some swift river or pellucid spring, some 
mountain or grove, " it was not that they believed that 
some particular divinity was there, or that it was a living 
thing, but because they believed that the great God, Ilia 
Ticci, had created and placed it there and imj)re3sed upon 
it some mark of distinction, beyond other objects of its 
class, that it might thus be designated as an appropriate spot 
whereat to worship the maker of all things ; and this is mani- 
fest from the prayers they uttered when engaged in adoration, 
because they are not addressed to that mountain, or river, 
or cave, but to the great Ilia Ticci Viracocha, who, they 
believed, lived in the heavens, and yet was invisibly present 
in that sacred object."' 

In the prayers for the dead, Ilia Ticci was appealed to, 
to protect the body, that it should not see corruption nor 

^ Relacion Andiiyma, de los Costumhres Antiguos de los Naturales 
del Piru, p. 138. 1615. (Published, Madrid, 1879). 
2 Ibid., p. 140. « Ibid., p. 147. 



172 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

become lost in the earth, and that he should not allowthe soul 
to wander aimlessly in the infinite spaces, but that it should 
be conducted to some secure haven of contentment, where it 
might receive the sacrifices and offerings which loving hands 
laid upon the tomb.^ Were other gods also called upon, it 
was that they might intercede with the Supreme Divinity 
in favor of these petitions of mortals. 

To him, likewise, the chief priest at certain times offered 
a child of six years, with a prayer for the prosperity of the 
Inca, in such terras as these : — 

"Oh, Lord, we offer thee this child, in order that thou 
wilt maintain us in comfort, and give us victory in war, 
and keep to our Lord, the luca, his greatness and his state, 
and grant him wisdom that he may govern us righteously.^ 

Or such a prayer as this was offered up by the assembled 
multitude : — 

" Oh, Viracocha ever present, Viracocha Cause of All, 
Viracocha the Helper, the Ceaseless Worker, Viracocha 
who gives the beginnings, Viracocha who encourages, 
Viracocha the always fortunate, Viracocha ever near, 
listen to this our prayer, send health, send prosperity to 
us thy people." ^ 

Thus Viracocha was placed above and beyond all othei 
gods, the essential First Cause, infinite, incorporeal, invis- 

^Ibid., p. 154. 

^ Herrera, Ilistoria de las Indias, Dec. v, Lib. iv, cap. i. 

^ Christoval de Molina, The Fables and Rites of the Incas, p. 2'.t. 
Molina gives the original Qquicluia, the translation of which is obvi- 
ously incomplete, and I have extended it. 



NAMES OF VIRACOCHA. 173 

ible, above the sun, older than the beginning, but omni- 
present, accessible, beneficent. 

Does this seem too abstract, too elevated a notion of God 
for a race whom we are accustomed to deem gross and 
barbaric? I cannot help it. The testimony of the earliest 
observers, and the living proof of language, are too strong 
to allow of doubt. Tlie adjectives which were applied to 
this divinity by the native priests are still on record, and 
that they were not a loan from Christian theology is con- 
clusively shown by the fact that the very writers who 
preserved them often did not know their meaning, and 
translated them incorrectly. 

Thus even Garcilasso de la Vega, himself of the blood 
of the Incas, tells us that neither he nor the natives of 
that day could translate Ticei} Thus, also, Garcia and 
Acosta inform us that Viracocha was surnamed Usapu, 
which they translate "admirable," ^ but really it means " he 
who accomplishes all that he undertakes, he who is success- 
ful in all things;" Molina has preserved the term Ymamana, 
which means " he who controls or owns all things ;" 
the title Fachayachaohi, which the Spanish writers render 
" Creator," really means the " Teacher of the World ;" 
that of Cay /la signifies "the Ever-present one;" Taripaca, 

^ " Dan (los Indios), otro norabre a Dios, que es Tici Viracocha, 
que yo no se que signifique, ni ellos tampoco." Garcilasso do la Vega, 
Comentarios lieales, Lib. n, cap. ii. 

^ Garcia, Origeii de los Indios, Lib. iii, cap. vi ; Acosta, Historia 
Natural y Moralde las Indias, fol. 199 (Barcelona 1591). 

* Christoval de Molina, The Fables and Rites of the Incas, Eng. 
Trans., p. 6. 



174 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

which has been guessed to be the same as tarapaca, an 
eagle, is really a derivative of taripani, to sit in judgment, 
and was applied to Viracocha as the final arbiter of the 
actions and destinies of man. Another of his frequent 
appellations for which no explanation has been oifered, 
was Tokay or Tocapo, properly Tukupay} It means 
" he who finishes," who completes and perfects, and 
is antithetical to Tied, he who begins. These two 
terms express the eternity of divinity ; they convey the 
same idea of mastery over time and the things of time, as 
do those words heard by the Evangelist in his vision in 
the isle called Patmos, " I am Alpha and Omega ; I am 
the Beginning and the End." 

Yet another epithet of Viracocha was Zapala? It 
conveys strongly and positively the monotheistic idea. 
It means " The One," or, more strongly, " The Only One." 

Nor must it be supposed that this monotheism was 
unconscious ; that it was, for example, a form of 
" henotheism," where the devotion of the adorer filled his 
soul, merely to the forgetfulness of other deities ; or that 
it was simply the logical law of unity asserting itself, as 
was the case with many of the apparently monotheistic 
utterances of the Greek and Roman writers. 

^ Melchioi- Hernandez, one of the etirliest writers, whose works are 
now lost, but who is quoted in the Relacion Andnima, gives this name 
Tocapu ; Christoval de Molina (iibi sup.) spells it Tocapo; La Vega 
Tocay; Molina gives its signification, "the maker."' It is from the 
word tukupay or tucuychani, to hnish, complete, perfect. 

2 Gomara, Historia de las Indias, p. 232 (ed. Paris, l852). 



A MONOTHEISTIC CULT. 175 

No; the evidence is such that we are obliged to acknowl- 
edge that the religion of Peru was a consciously mono- 
theistic cult, every whit as much so as the Greek or Roman 
Catholic Churches of Christendom. 

Those writers who have called the Inca religion a " sun 
worship" have been led astray by superficial resemblances. 
One of the best early authorities, C'hristoval de Molina, 
repeats with emphasis the statement, " They did not 
recognize the Sun as their Creator, but as created by the 
Creator," and this creator was " not born of woman, but 
was unchangeable and eternal." ^ For conclusive testimonv 
on this point, however, we may turn to an Informacion or 
Inquiry as to the ancient belief, instituted in 1571, by order 
of the viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo. The oldest 
Indians, especially those of noble birth, including many 
descendants of the Incas, were assembled at different times 
and in different parts of the country, and carefully questioned, 
through the official interpreter, as to just what the old 
religion was. The questions were not leading ones, and the 
replies have great uniformity. They all agreed that 
Viracocha was worshiped as creator, and as the ever-present 
active divinity ; he alone answered prayers, and aided in 
time of need ; he was the sole efficient god. All prayers to 
the Sun or to the deceased Incas, or to idols, were directed to 
them as intercessors only. On this point the statements 

^ Christoval de Molina, The Fables and Rites of the Incas, pp. 8, 17. 
EiiK. Trans. 



176 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

were most positive.^ The Sun was but one of Viracocha's 
creations, not itself the Creator. 

It is singular that historians have continued to repeat that 
the Qquichuas adored the Sun as their principal divinity, 
in the face of such evidence to the contrary. If this In- 
quiry and its important statements had not been accessible 
to them, at any rate they could readily have learned the 
same lesson from the well known History of Father Joseph 
de Acosta. That author says, and repeats with great 
positiveness, that the Sun was in Peru a secondary divinity, 
and that the supreme deity, the Creator and ruler of the 
world, was Viracocha.^ 

Another misapprehension is that these natives worshiped 
directly their ancestors. Thus, Mr. Markham writes : " The 
Incas worshiped their ancestors, the Pacarlna, or fore- 
father of the Ayllu, or lineage, being idolized as the soul 

^ " Ellos solo Viracocha tenian por hacedor de todas las cosas, j'que 
el solo los podia socorrer, y que de tod(J»s los deinas los tenian por sus 
intercesores, y que ansi los decian ellos en sus oraciones antiguas, 
antes que fuesen cristianos, y que ansi lo dicen y declaran por cosa 
rauy cierta y verdadera." Informacion de las Idolatras de los Incas 
6 Indios, in the Coleccion de Documentos laeditos del Archivo de 
Indicts, vol. xxi, p. 198. Other witnesses said: " Los dichos Ingas y 
sus antepasados tenian por criador al solo Viracocha, y que solo los 
podia socorrer," id. p. 184. "Adoraban ii Viracocha por hacedor de 
todas las cosas, como (i el sol y a Hachaccuna los adoraban porque 
los tenia por hijos de Viracocha y por cosa muy alleguda suya," p. 
133. 

^ " Sientany confiessan un supremo seflor, y hazedor detodo, al qual 
los del Piru llamavan Viracocha. * * Despues del Viracocha, o 
supremo Dios, fui, y es en losinfieles, el que mas comunniento veneran 
y adoran el sol." Acosta, De la Historia Moral de las Indias, Lib, v. 
cap. Ill, IV, (Barcelona, 1591). 



PERUVIAN MOXOTHEISM, 177 

or essence of his descendants." ^ But in the Inquiry above 
quoted it is explained that the beli3f, in fact, was tliat 
the soul of the Inca went at death to the presence of the 
deity Viracocha, and its emblem, the actual body, carefully 
preserved, was paid divine honors in order that the soul 
mio;ht intercede with Viracocha for the fidfiUment of the 
prayers.^ 

We are compelled, therefore, by the best evidence now 
attainable, to adopt the conclusion that the Inca religion, 
in its purity, deserved the name of monotheism. The 
statements of the natives and the terms of their religious 
language unite in confirming this opinion. 

It is not right to depreciate the force of these facts 
simply because we have made up our minds that a {)eople 
in the intellectual sta";e of the Peruvians could not have 
mounted to such a pure air of religion. A prejudgment 
of this kind is unworthy of a scientific mind. The evi- 
dence is complete that the terms I have quoted did belong 
to the religious language of ancient Peru. They express 
the conception of divinity which the thinkers of that people 
had formed. And whether it is thought to be in keeping 
or not with the rest of their development, it is our 
bounden duty to accept it, and explain it as best we can. 
Other instances might be quoted, from the religious history 
of the old world, where a nation's insight into the attributes 

^ Clements R. Markham, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 
1871, p. 291. Pacarina is the present participle o? pacariai, to dawn, 
to begin, to be born. 

- Ivformacion, etc. , p. 209. 

12 



178 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

of deity was singularly in advance of their general state of 
cultivation. The best thinkers of the Semitic race, for 
example, from Moses to Spinoza, have been in this respect 
far ahead of their often more generally enlightened Aryan 
contemporaries. 

The more interesting, in view of this lofty ideal of 
divinity they had attained, become the Peruvian myths of 
the incarnation of Viracocha, his life and doings as a man 
among men. 

These myths present themselves in different, but to the 
reader who has accompanied me thus far, now familiar 
forms. Once more we meet the story of the four brothers, 
the first of men. They appeared on the earth after it had 
been rescued from the primeval waters, and the face of the 
land was divided between them. Manco Capac took the 
North, Colla the South, Pinahua the West, and the East, 
the region whence come the sun and the light, was given to^ 
Tokay or Tocapa, to Viracocha, under his name of the 
Finisher, he who completes and perfects.^ 

The outlines of this legend are identical with another, 
where Viracocha appears under the name of Ayar Cachi. 
This was, in its broad outlines, the most general myth, that 
which has been handed down by the most numerous 
authorities, and which they tell us was taken directly from 
the ancient songs of the Indians, as repeated by those who 
could recall the days of the Incas Huascar and Atahualpa.'^ 

^ Garcilasso de la Vega, Comentarios Reales, Lib. i, cap. xviii. 

^ "Parece por los cantares de los Indies ; * * * afirtuaron los 
Orejones que quedaron de los tiempos de Guascar i de Atahualpa ; 



THE FOUR BROTHERS. 179 

It ran in this wise : In tlie beginning of things there 
appeared on the earth four brothers, whose names were, of 
the oldest, Ayar Cachi, which means he who gives Being, 
or who Causes;^ of the youngest, Ayar Manco, and of 
the others, Ayar Aucca (the enemy), and Ayar Uchu. 
Their father was the Sun, and the place of their birth, or 
rather of their appearance on earth, was Paccari-tampu, 
which means The House of the Morning or the Mansion 
of the Dawn?' In after days a certain cave near Cuzoo 
was so called, and pointed out as the scene of this moment- 
ous event, but we may well believe that a nobler site than 
any the earth affords could be correctly designated. 

These brothers were clothed in long and flowing robes, 
with short upper garments without sleeves or collar, and 
this raiment was worked with marvelous skill, and glittered 
and shone like light. They were powerful and proud, 
and determined to rule the whole earth, and for this pur- 
pose divided it into four parts, the North, the South, the 
East, and the West. Hence they were called by the people, 

* * * cuentan los Indios del Cuzco mas viejos, etc.," repeats 
the historian Herrera, Historia de las Indias Occidentalcs, Dec. v, 
Lib. Ill, cap. VII, viii. 

^ " Cachini; dar el ser y hazer que sea ; cachi chiuachic, el autor 
y causa de algo." Holguin, Vocabvlario de la Lengva Qquichua, 
sub voce, cachipuni. The names differ little in Herrera (who, how- 
ever, omits Uchu), Montesinos, Balboa, Oliva, La Vega and Pacha- 
cuti ; I have followed the orthography of the two latter, as both were 
native Qquichuas. 

^ Holguin {uhi suprd,) gives paccarin, the morning, paccarini, to 
dawn ; tampu, venta 6 meson. 



180 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

Tahuantin Suyu Kapuc, Lords of all four Quarters of the 
Earth.^ 

The most powerful of these was Ayar Cachi. He pos- 
sessed a sling of gold, and in it a stone with which he could 
demolish lofty mountains and hurl aloft to the clouds them- 
selves. He gathered together the natives of the country at 
Pacari tampu, and accumulated at the House of the Dawn 
a great treasure of yellow gold. Like the glittering hoard 
which we read of in the lay of the Nibelung, the treasure 
brought with it the destruction of its owner, for his 
brothers, envious of the wondrous pile, persuaded Ayar 
Cachi to enter the cave where he kept his hoard, in order to 
bring out a certain vase, and also to pray to their father, 
the Sun, to aid them to rule their domains. As soon as he 
had entered, they stopped the mouth of the cave with huge 
stones; and thus rid of him, they set about collecting the 
j)eople and making a settlement at a certain place called 
Tampu quiru (the Teeth of the House). 

But they did not know the magical power of their 
brother. While they were busy with their plans, w'hat was 
their dismay to see Ayar Cachi, freed from the cave, and 
with great wings of brilliantly colored feathers, hovering 
like a bird in the air over their heads. They expected 
swift retribution for their intended fratricide, but instead of 
this they heard reassuring words from his lips. 

"Have no fear," he said, "I left you in order that the 
great empire of the Incas might be known to men. 

^Tahuantin, all four, from ta/tua, four; svi/u, division, section; 
kapac, king. 



MYTH OF THE FOUR BROTHERS. 181 

Leave, therefore, this settlement of Tampu quiru, and 
descend into the Valley of Cuzco, where you shall found 
a famous city, and in it build a sumptuous temple to the 
Sun. As for rac, I shall remain in the form in which you 
see me, and shall dwell in the mountain peak Guanacaure, 
ready to help you, and on that mountain you must build me 
an altar and make to me sacrifices. And the sign that you 
shall wear, whereby you shall be feared and respected of 
your subjects, is that you shall have your ears pierced, as 
are mine," saying which he showed them his ears pierced 
and carrying large, round plates of gold. 

They promised him obedience in all things, and forthwith 
built an altar on the mountain Guanacaure, which ever 
after was esteemed a most holy place. Here again Ayar 
Cachi appeared to them, and bestowed on Ayar Manco the 
scarlet fillet which became the perpetual insignia of the 
reigning Inca. The remaning brothers were turned into 
stone, and Manco, assuming the title of Kapae, King, and 
the metaphorical surname of Pirhua, the Granary or 
Treasure house, founded the City of Cuzco, married his 
four sisters, and became the first of the dynasty of the Incas. 
He lived to a great age, and during the whole of his life 
never omitted to pay divine honors to his brothers, and 
especially to Ayar Cachi. 

In another myth of the incarnation the infinite Creator 
Ticci Viracocha duplicates himself in the twin incarna- 
tion of Ymrimana Viracocha and Toeapu Viracocha, 
names which we have already seen mean " he who has all 



182 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

things," and " he who perfects all things." The legend 
was that these brothers started in the distant East and 
journeyed toward the West. The one went by way of the 
mountains, the other by the paths of the lowlands, and 
each on his journey, like Itzamna in Yucatecan story, gave 
names to the places he passed, and also to all trees and 
herbs of the field, and to all fruits, and taught the people 
which were good for food, which of virtue as medicines, 
and which were poisonous and to be shunned. Thus they 
journeyed westward, imparting knowledge and doing good 
works, until they reached the western ocean, the great Pacific, 
whose waves seem to stretch westward into infinity. Tiiere, 
" having accomplished all they had to do in this world, 
they ascended into Heaven," once more to form part of 
the Infinite Being ; for the venerable authority whom I 
am following is careful to add, most explicitly, that " these 
Indians believed for a certainty that neither the Creator 
nor his sons were born of woman, but that they all were 
unchangeable and eternal." ^ 

Still more human does Viracocha become in the myth 
where he appears under the surnames Tunapa and Tai'i- 
paca. The latter I have already explained to mean He 
who Judges, and the former is a synonym of Tocapu, as it is 
from the verb ttaniy or ttaniid, and means He who Finishes 
completes or perfects, although, like several other of his 
names, the significance of this one has up to the present 
remained unexplained and lost. The myth has been 

^ Christoviil tie Moliuii, Fables and liitcs of the Incas, p. G. 



THE STORY OF TUNAPA. 183 

preserved to us by a native Indian writer, Joan de Sauta 
Cruz Pachacuti, who wrote it out somewhere about the 
year 1600.^ 

He tells us that at a very remote period, shortly after 
the country of Peru had been populated, there came from 
Lake Titicaca to the tribes an elderly man with flowing 
beard and abundant white hair, supporting himself on a 
staff and dressed in wide-spreading robes. He went among 
the people, calling them his sons and daughters, relieving 
their infirmities and teaching them the precepts of wisdom. 

Often, however, he met the fate of so many other wise 

teachers, and was rejected and scornfully entreated by those 

^ Relacion de Antiguedades deste Reyno del Piru, por Don Joan de 
Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui, passim. Pachacuti relates the story of 
Tunapa as being distinctly the hero-myth of the Qquichuas. He was 
also the hero-god of the Aymaras, and about him, says Father Ludo- 
vico Bertonio, "they to this day relate many fables and follies." 
Vocahulario de la Lengua Aymara, s. v. Another name he bore in 
Aymara was Ecaco, which in that language means, as a common 
noun, an ingenious, shifty man of many plans {Bertonio, Vocahulario, 
s. v.). " Thunnupa." as Bertonio spells it, does not lend itself to any 
obvious etymology in Aymara, which is further evidence that the 
name was introduced from the Qquichua. This is by no means a 
singuUr example of the identity of religious thought and terms 
between these nations. In comparing the two tongues, M. Alcide 
D' Orbigny long since observed : "On retrouve meme tl peu pr6s un 
viugtifeme des mots qui ont evidemment la meme origine, surtout ceux 
qui cxpriment les idfees religieuses." V Homme Am^ricain, consider d 
sous ses Rapports Physiologiques et Moraux, Tome i, p. 322 (Paris, 
1839). This author endeavors to prove that the Qquichua religion 
was mainly borrowed from the Aymaras, and of the two he regards 
the latter as the senior in civilization. But so far as I have been able 
to study the mythology of the Aymaras, which is but very superficially, 
on account of the lack of sources, it does not seem to be entitled 
to this credit. 



184 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

whom he was striving to instruot. Swift retribution 
sometimes fell upon such stiff-uecked listeners. Thus he 
once entered the town of Yamquesupa, the principal place 
in the province of the South, and began teaching the 
inhabitants; but they heeded him not, and seized him, 
and with insult and blows drove him from the town, so 
that he had to sleep in the open fields. Thereupon he 
cursed their town, and straightway it sank into the earth 
with all its inhabitants, and the depression was filled with 
water, and all were drowned. To this day it is known as 
the lake of Yamquesupa, and all the people about there 
well know that what is now a sheet of water was once the 
site of a flourishing city. 

At another time he visited Tiahuanaco, whore may yet 
be seen the colossal ruins of some ancient city, and massive 
figures in stone of men and women. In his time this was 
a populous mart, its people rich and proud, given to 
revelry, to drunkenness and dances. Little they cared for 
the words of the preacher, and they treated him with dis- 
dain. Then he turned upon them his anger, and in an 
•instant the dancers were changed into stone, just a.^ they 
stood, and there they remain to this day, as any one can 
see, perpetual warnings not to scorn the words of the wise. 

On another occasion he was seized by the people who 
dwelt by the great lake of Carapaco, and tied hands and 
feet with stout cords, it being their intention to put him to 
a cruel death the next day. But very early in the morn- 
ing, just at the time of the dawn, a beautiful youth entered 



THE ESCAPE OF TUXAPA. 185 

and said, " Fear not, I have come to call you in the name 
of the lady who is awaiting you, that you may go with 
her to the place of joys." With that he touched the 
fetters on Tunapa's limbs, and the ropes snapped asunder, 
and they went forth untouched by the guards, who stood 
around. They descended to the lake shore, and just as 
the dawn appeared, Tunapa spread his mantle on the 
waves, and he and his companion stepping upon it, as upon 
a raft, were wafted rapidly away into the rays of the 
morning light. 

The cautious Pachacuti does not let us into the secret of 
this mysterious assignation, either because he did not know 
or because he would not disclose the mysteries of his ances- 
tral faith. But I am not so discreet, and I vehemently 
suspect that the lady who was awaiting the virtuous 
Tunapa, was Chasca, the Dawn Maiden, she of the beauti- 
ful hair which distills the dew, and that the place of joys 
whither she invited him was the Mansion of the Sky, into 
which, daily, the Light-God, at the hour of the morning 
twilight, is ushered by the chaste maiden Aurora. 

As the anger of Tunapa was dreadful, so his favors were 
more than regal. At the close of a day he once reached the 
town of the chief Apotampo, otherwise Pacari tampu, 
which means the House or Lodgings of the Dawn, where 
the festivities of a wedding were in progress. The guests, 
intent upon the pleasures of the hour, listened with small 
patience to the words of the old man, but the chief himself 
heard them with profound attention and delight. There- 



186 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

fore, as Tunapa was leaving he presented to the chief, as a 
reward for his hospitality and respect, the staff which had 
assisted his feeble limbs in many a journey. It was of no 
great seemliness, but upon it were inscribed characters of 
magic power, and the chief wisely cherished it among his 
treasures. It was well he did, for on the day of the birth 
of his next child the staff turned into fine gold, and that 
child was none other than the far-famed Manco Capac, 
destined to become the ancestor of tiie illustrious line of the 
Incas, Sons of the Sun, and famous in all countries that it 
shines upon ; and as for the golden stiiff, it became, through 
all after time until the Spanish conquest, the sceptre of 
the Incas and the sign of their sovereignty, the famous and 
sacred tupa yauri, the royal wand.^ 

It became, indeed, to Manco Ca])ac a mentor and guide. 
His father and mother having died, he started out with his 
brothers and sisters, seven brothers and seven sisters of 
them, to seek new lands, taking this staff' in his hand. 
Like the seven brothers who, in Mexican legend, left Aztlau, 
the White Land, to found nations and cities, so the brothers 
of Manco Capac, leaving Pacari tanipu, the Lodgings of the 
Dawn, became the sinehi, or heads of various noble houses 
and chiefs of tribes in the empire of the Incas. As for 
Manco, it is well known that with his golden wand he 
journeyed on, overcoming demons and destroying his 
enemies, until he reached the mountain over against the 

^ " Tnpayauri; Elcetro real, vara insignia real del Inca." Holguin, 
Vocabvlario de la Lengva Qqnichua o del Inca, s. v. 



THE FOUNDING OF CUZCO. 187 

spot where tlie city of Cuzco now stands. Here the sacred 
wand sunk of its own motion into the earth, and Manco 
Capac, recognizing the divine monition, named the moun- 
tain Huanacauri, the Place of Kepose. In the valley at 
the base he founded the great city which he called Cuzco, 
the Navel. Its inhabitants ever afterwards classed Huan- 
acauri as one of their principal deities.^ 

When Manco Capac's work was done, he did not die, 
like other mortals, but rose to heaven, and became the 
planet Jupiter, under the name Plrua. From this, accord- 
ing to some writers, the country of Peru derived its name.^ 

It may fairly be supposed that this founder of the Inca 
dynasty was an actual historical personage. But it is 
evident that much that is told about him is imagery drawn 
from the legend of the Light-God . 

And what became of Tunapa ? We left him sailing on his 
outspread mantle, into the light of the morning, over Lake 
Carapaco. But the legend does not stop there. Where- 
ever he went that day, he returned to his toil, and pursued 
his way down the river Chacamarca till he reached the 
sea. There his fate becomes obscure ; but, adds Pacha- 

^ Don Gav.no Pacheco Zegarra derives Huanacauri from huanaya, 
to rest oneself, and cayn, here; " e'est ici qu'il faut se reposer." 
Ollantai, Introd., p. xxv. It was distinctly the huaca, or sacred 
fetish of the Incas, and they were figuratively said to have descended 
from it. Its worship was very prominent in ancient Peru. See the 
Informacion de las Idolatras de los Incas y Indios, 1571, previously 
quoted. 

^Tho id(3ntilication of Manco Capac with the planet Jupiter is 
mentioned in the Belacion Anoiiima, on the authority of Mclchior 
Hernandez. 



188 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

cuti, " I understand that he passed by the strait (of Pana- 
ma) into the other sea (back toward the East). This is 
what is averred by the most ancient sages of the Inca line, 
{por aquellos wgas antlquisslmos)." We may well believe 
he did; for the light of day, which is quenched in the 
western ocean, passes back again, by the straits or in some 
other way, and appears again the next morning, not in the 
West, where we watched its dying rays, but in the East, 
where again it is born to pursue its daily and ever recur- 
ring journey. 

According to another, and also very early account, Vira- 
cocha was preceded by a host of attendants, who were 
his messengers and soldiers. When he reached the sea, 
he and these his followers marched out upon the waves 
as if it had been dry laud, and disappeared in the West.^ 

These followers were, like himself, white and bearded. 
Just as, in Mexico, the natives attributed the erection of 
buildings, the history of which had been lost, to the white 
Toltecs, the subjects of Quetzalcoatl (see above, page 87), 
so in Peru various ancient ruins, whose builders had been 
lost to memory, were pointed out to the Spaniards as the 
work of a white and bearded race who held the country 
in possession long before the Incas had founded their 

dynasty.^ The exphination in both cases is the same. In 

^ Garcia, Origen de los Itidios, Lib. v, Cap. vii. 

* Speaking of certain " grandesy miiy antiquissimos cdificios" on the 
river Vinaque, Cieza de Leon says : '' Preguntando ii los Indios com- 
arcanos quien hiz6 aquella antigualla, responden que otras gentes bar- 
badas y blancas coino nosotros : los cuales, rauclios ticmpos antes 
que los Ingas rcinasen, diceu que vinieron a estas partes y hicieron 
alii su morada." La Crdnica del Peru, cap. lxxxvi. 



THE BENEFICENT TEACHER. 189 

both the early works of art of iiuknown origin were sup- 
posed to be the productions of the personified light rays, 
which are the source of skill, because they sup{)ly the 
means indispensable to the aquisition of knowledge. 

The versions of these myths which have been preserved 
to us by Juan de Betanzos, and the documents on which 
the historian Herrera founded his narrative, are in the 
main identical with that which I have quoted from the 
narrative of Pachacuti. I shall, howev^er, give that of 
Herrera, as it has some interesting features. 

He tells us that the traditions and songs which the 
Indians had received from their remote ancestors related 
that in very early times there was a period when there 
was no sun, and men lived in darkness. At length, in 
answer to their urgent prayers, the sun emerged from Lake 
Titicaca, and soon afterwards there came a man from the 
south, of fair complexion, large in stature, and of 
venerable presence, whose power was boundless. He 
removed mountains, filled up valleys, caused fountains to 
burst from the solid rocks, and gave life to men 
and animals. Hence the people called him the " Begin- 
ning of all Created Things/' and "Father of the 
Sun." Many good works he performed, bringing order 
among the people, giving them wise counsel, working 
miracles and teaching. He went on his journey toward 
the north, but until the latest times they bore his deeds 
and person in memory, under the names of Tici Vira- 
cocha and Tuapaca, and elsewhere as Arnava. They 



190 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

erected many temples to him, in which they placed his 
figure and image as described. 

They also said that after a certain length of time there 
re-appeared another like this first one, or else he was the 
same, who" also gave wise counsel and cured the sick. He 
met disfavor, and at one spot the people set about to slay 
him, but he called down upon them fire from heaven, 
which burned their village and scorched the mountains 
into cinders. Then they threw away their weapons and 
begged of him to deliver them from the danger, which he 
did.^ He passed on toward the West until he reached the 
shore of the sea. There he spread out his mantle, and 
seating himself upon it, sailed away and was never seen 
again. For this reason, adds the chronicler, " the name 
was given to him, Viracocha, which means Foam of the 
Sea, though afterwards it changed in signification." ^ 

This leads me to the etymology of the name. It is 

confessedly obscure. The translation which Herrera gives, 

is that generally offered by the Spanish writers, but it is 

not literal. The word uira means fat, and cocha, lake, sea, 

or other large body of water ; therefore, as the genitive 

^ This incident is also related by Pachacuti and Betanzos. All 
three locate the scene of the event at Oarcha, eighteen leagues from 
Cuzco, where the Canas tribe lived at the Conquest. Pachacuti states 
that the cause of the anger of Viracocha was that upon the Sierra 
there was the statue of a woman to whom human victims were 
sacrificed. If this was the tradition, it would offer another point of 
identity with that of Quetzalcoatl, who was also said to have forbidden 
human sacrifices. 

2 Herrera, Ilistoria de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. v, Lib. in, 
cap. VI. 



MEANING OF VIRACOCHA. 191 

must be prefixed in the Qquichua tongue, the translation 
must be " Lake or Sea of Fat." 1'his was shown by 
Grarcilasso de la Vega, in his Royal Commentaries, and as 
he could see no sense or propriety in applying such a term 
as "Lake of Grease " to the Supreme Divinity, he rejected 
this derivation, and contented himself by saying that the 
meaning of the name was totally unknown/ In this Mr. 
Clements R. Markham, who is an authority on Peru- 
vian matters, coincides, though acknowledging that no 
other meaning suggests itself.'^ I shall not say anything 
about the derivations of this name from the Sanskrit,* or 
the ancient J^gyptian ; ■* these are etymological amusements 
with which serious studies have nothing to do. 

The first and accepted derivation has been ably and 
to my mind successfully defended by probably the most 
accomplished Qquichua scholar of our age, Seiior Gavino 
Pacheco Zegarra, who, in the introduction to his most ex- 
cellent edition of the Drama of OUantdi, maintains that 
Viracocha, literally "Lake of Fat," was a simile applied to 
the frothing, foaming sea, and adds that as a personal name 

^ " Donde consta claro no ser nombre compuesto, sino proprio de 
aquella fantasma que dijo llamarse Viracocha y que erahijo del Sol." 
Com. Heales, Lib. v, cap. xxi. 

2 Introduction to Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Incas, p. 

XI. 

* " Le nom de Viracocha dont la physiononaie sanskrite est si 
frappante," etc. Desjardins, Le Perou avant la Conqu^te Espagnole, 
p. 180 (Paris 1858). - 

* Viracocha "is the II or Ra of the Babylonian monuments, and 
thus the Ra of Egypt," etc. Professor John Campbell, Compte- Rendu 
du Congre's International des Am6ricanistes, Vol. i, p. 362 (1875). 



192 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

in this signification "it is in entire conformity with the 
genius of the Qquichua tongue.^ 

To quote his words: — "The tradition was thatViracocha's 
face was extremely wliite and bearded. From this his 
name was derived, which means, taken literally, "Lake of 
Fat;' by extension, however, the word means 'Sea-Foam,' 
as in the Qquichua language the foam is called fat, no 
doubt on account of its whiteness." 

It had a double appropriateness in its application to the 
hero-god. Not only was he supposed in the one myth to 
have risen from the waves of Lake Titicaoa, and in another 
to have appeared when tlie primeval ocean left the land 
dry, but he was universally described as of fair complexion, 
a white man. Strange, indeed, it is that these people who 
had never seen a member of tlie white race, should so 
persistently have represented their highest gods as of 
this hue, and what is more, with the flowing beard and 
abundant light hair which is their characteristic. 

There is no denying, however, that such is the fact. Did 

it depend on legend alone we might, however strong the 

consensus of testimony,^ harbor some doubt about it. But 

it does not. The monuments themselves attest it. There 

is, indeed, a singular uniformity of statement in the myths. 

Viracocha, under any and all his surnames, is always 

described as white and bearded, dressed in flowing robes 

^ OUuntai, Drameenvers Quechuas, Introd., p. xxxvi (Paris, 1878). 
There was a class of diviners in Peru who foretold the future by 
inspecting the fat of animals ; they were called Vira-piricuc. Molina, 
Fables and Rites, p. 13. 



THE WHITE CIVILIZER. 



193 



and of imposing mien. His robes were also white, and 
thus he was figured at the entrance of one of his most 
celebrated temples, that of Urcos. His image at that 
place was of a man with a white robe falling to his waist, 
and thence to his feet; by him, cut in stone, were his birds, 
the eagle and the falcon.^ So, also, on a certain occasion 
when he was said to have appeared in a dream to one of 
the Incas who afterwards adopted his name, he was said to 
have come with beard more than a span in length, and 
clothed in a large and loose mantle, which fell to his feet, 
while with his hand he held, by a cord to its neck, some un- 
known animal. And thus in after times he was represented 
in painting and statue, by order of that Inca.'* 

An early writer tells us that the great temple of Cuzco, 
which was afterwards chosen for the Cathedral, was 
originally that of Ilia Ticci Viracocha. It contained only 
one altar, and upon it a marble statue of the god. This is 
described as being, "both as to the hair, complexion, 
featuras, raiment and sandals, just as painters represent the 
Apostle, Saint Bartholomew.'" 

Misled by the statements of the historian Garcilasso de 
la Vega, some later writers, among whom I may note the 
eminent German traveler Von Tschudi, have supposed 
that Viracocha belonged to the historical deities of 

^ Christoval de Molina, ubi supra, p. 29. 

^ Garcilasso de la Vega, Comentarios Beales, Lib. iv, cap. xxi. 

* Bdacion anonima, p. 148. 



13 



194 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

Peru, and that his worship was of comparatively recent 
origin.^ La Vega, who could not understand the name of the 
divinity, and, moreover, either knew little about the ancient 
religion, or else concealed his knowledge (as is shown by 
his reiterated statement that human sacrifices were un- 
known), pretended that Yiracocha first came to be honored 
through a dream of the Inca who assumed his name. 
But the narrative of the occurrence that he himself gives 
shows that even at that time the myth was well known 
and of great antiquity.* 

The statements which he makes on the authority of 
Father Bias Valera, that the Inca Tupac Yupauqui 
sought to purify the religion of his day by leading it 
toward the contemplation of an incorporeal God,' is 
probably, in the main, correct. It is supported by a 
similar account given by Acosta, of the famous Huayna 
Capac. Indeed, they read so much alike that they are 
probably repetitions of teachings familiar to the nobles 
and higher priests. Both Incas maintained that the Sun 
could not be the chief god, because he ran daily his accus- 
tomed course, like a slave, or an animal that is led. He 

^ " La principal de estas Deidades historicas era Viracocha. * * * 
Dos siglos contaba el culto de Viracocha 4 la Uogada de los Espanoles. ' ' 
J. Diego de Tschudi, Antiguedades Feruanas, pp. 159, 160 (Vienna, 
1851). 

- Compare the account in Garcilasso de la Vega, Comentarioa 
Reales, Lib. ii, cap. iv; Lib. iv, cap. xxi, xxiii, with that in Acosta, 
Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias, Lib. vi, cap. xxi. 

' Comentarios Eeales, Pt. i, Lib. viii, cap. vni. 



THE DEITY CON. 



195 



must therefore be the subject of a miglitier power than 
himself. 

We may reasonably suj)posc that these expressions are 
l)roof of a growing sense of the attributes of divinity. 
They are indications of the evolution of religious thought, 
and go to show that the monotheistic ideas which I have 
pointed out in the titles and names of the highest God, 
were clearly recognized and publicly announced. 

Viracocha was also worshiped under the title Con-licci- 
Viracocha. Various explanations of the name Con have 
been offered. It is not positively certain that it belongs 
to the Qquichua tongue, A myth preserved by Gomara 
treats Con as a distinct deity. He is said to have come 
from the north, to have been without bones, muscles or 
members, to have the power of running with infinite 
swiftness, and to have leveled mountains, filled up valleys, 
and deprived the coast plains of rain. At the same time 
he is called a son of the Sun and the Moon, and it was 
owing to his good will and creative power that men and 
women were formed, and maize and fruits given them 
upon which to subsist. 

Another more powerful god, however, by name Pa- 
chacamac, also a son of the Sun and Moon, and hence 
brother to Con, rose up against him and drove him from 
the laud. The men and women whom Con had formed 
were changed by Pachacamac into brutes, and others cre- 
ated who were tlie ancestors of the present race. These he 
supplied with what was necessary for their support, and 



196 AMERICAN HEEO-MYTHS. 

taught thera the arts of war and peace. For these rea- 
sons they venerated him as a god, and constructed for liis 
worship a sumptuous temple, a league and a half from the 
present city of Litna.^ 

This myth of the conflict of the two brothers is too 
similar to others I have quoted for its significance to be 
mistaken. Unfortunately it has been handed down in so 
fragmentary a condition that it does not seem possible to 
assign it its proper relations to the cycle of Yiracocha 
legends. 

As I have hinted, we are not sure of the meaning of the 
name Con, nor whether it is of Qquichua origin. If it is, as 
is indeed likely, then we may suppose that it is a transcription 
of the word ccun, which in Qquichua is the third person 
singular, present indicative, of ccuni, I give. " He Gives;" 
the Giver, would seem an appropriate name for the first 
creator of things. But the myth itself, and the description 
of the deity, incorporeal and swift, bringer at one time of 
the fertilizing rains, at another of the drought, seems to 
point unmistakably to a god of the winds. Linguistic 
analogy bears this out, for the name given to a whirlwind 
or violent wind storm was Conchuy, with an additional 
word to signify whether it was one of rain or merely a dust 
storm.'^ For this reason I think M. Wiener's attempt to 

^ Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Hutona de las Jndias, p. 233 
(Ed. Paris, 1852). 

2 A wliirlwind with rain was paria conchuy (paria, rain), one with 
clouds of dust, allpa coiichvi/ {allpa, earth, dust) ; Holguin, Vocab- 
vlario Qquichva, s. v. Antay conchuy. 



PACHACAMAC. 197 

make of Con (or Qqiionn, as he prefers to spell it) merely 
a deity of the rains, is too narrow,^ 

The legend would seem to indicate that he was supposed 
to have been defeated and quite driven away. But the 
study of the monuments indicates that this was not the case. 
One of the most remarkable antiquities in Peru is at a place 
called Concacha, three leagues south of Abancay, on the 
road from Cuzco to Lima. M. Leonce Angra!id has 
observed that this " was evidently one of the great religious 
centres of the primitive peoples of Peru." Here is found 
an enormous block of granite, very curiously carved to 
facilitate the dispersion of a liquid poured on its summit 
into varied streams and to quaint receptacles. Whether the 
liquid was the blood of victims, the intoxicating beverage 
of the country, or pure water, all of which have been 
suggested, we do not positively know, but I am inclined to 
believe, with M. Wiener, that it was the last mentioned, 
and that it was as the beneficent deity of the rains that Con 
was worshiped at this sacred spot. Its name con cacha, 
" the Messenger of Con," points to this.'^ 

The words Pacha eamac mean "animating" or "giving 
life to the world." It is said by Father Acosta to have 
been one of the names of Viracooha,^ and in a sacred song 

1 Le Perou et Bolime, p. 69i. (Paris, 1880.) 

^ These remains are carefully described by Charles Wiener, Perqu 
et Bolivie, p. 282, seq; from the notes of M. Angrand.by Desjardins, 
Le Perou avant la Conquete Espagnole, p. 132; and in a sui)erficial 
manner by Squier, Peru, p. 555. 

* Historia Natural y Moral de las Lidias, Lib. v, cap. in. 



198 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

preserved by Gareilasso de la Vega he is appealed to by 
this title.' The identity of these two divinities seems, 
therefore, sufificiently established. 

The worship of Pachacamac is asserted by competent 
antiquarian students to have been more extended in ancient 
Peru than the older historians supposed. This is indicated 
by the many remains of temples which local tradition 
attribute to his worship, and by the customs of the 
natives.- For instance, at the birth of a child it was 
formally offered to him and his protection solicited. On 
reaching some arduous heiglit the toiling Indian would 
address a few words of thanks to Pachacamac ; and the 
piles of stones, which were the simple signs of their 
gratitude, are still visible in all parts of the country. 

This variation of the story of Viracocha aids to an 
understanding of his mythical purport. The oft-recurring 
epithet " Contice Viracocha " shows a close relationship 

^ Comentarios Reales, Lib. ii, cap. xxviii. 

2 Von Tschudi, who in one part of his work maintains that sun- 
worship was the prevalent religion of Peru, modifies the assertion 
considerably in the following passage: " El culto de Pachacamac se 
hallaba mucho mas extendido de lo que suponen los historiadores ; 
y se puede sin error aventurar la opinion de que era la Deidad popu- 
lar y acatada por las masas peruanas ; mientras que la religion del Sol 
era la de la corte, culto que, por mas adoptado que fuese entre los 
Indios, nunca lleg6 A desarraigar la fe y la devocion al Nuinen primi- 
tivo. En eff'ecto, on todas las relacioncs de la vida de los Indios, resalta 
la profunda veneracion que tributavan ii Pachacamac." Aiitir/ueda- 
dcs Peruanas, p. 149. Inasmuch as elsewhere this author takes pains 
to show that the Incas discarded the worship of the Sun, and insti- 
tuted in place of it that of Viracocha, the above would seem to dimin- 
ish the sphere of Sun-worship very much. 



THE EXPECTED WHITE CONQUERORS. 199 

between his character and that of the divinity Con, in fact, 
an identity which deserves close attention. It is ex- 
plained, I believe, by the supposition that Viracocha was 
the Lord of the Wind as well as of the Light. Like all 
the other light gods, and deities of the cardinal points, he 
was at the same time the wind from them. What has been 
saved from the ancient mythology is enough to show this, 
but not enouji'h to allow us to reconcile the seeming- con- 
tradictions which it suggests. Moreover, it must be ever 
remembered that all religions repose on contradictions, 
contradictions of fact, of logic, and of statement, so that 
we must not seek to force any one of them into consistent 
unity of form, even with itself. 

I have yet to add another point of similarity between 
the myth of Viracocha and those of Quetzalcoatl, Itzamna 
and the others, which I have already narrated. As in 
Mexico, Yucatan and elsewhere, so in the realms of the 
Incas, the Spaniards found themselves not unexpected 
guests. Here, too, texts of ancient prophecies were called 
to mind, words of warning from solemn and antique songs, 
foretelling that other Viracochas, men of fair complexion 
and flowing beards, would some day come from the Sun, 
the father of existent nature, and subject the empire to 
their rule. When the great Inca, Huayna Capac, was on 
his death-bed, he recalled these prophecies, and impressed 
them upon the mind of his successor, so that when De 
Soto, the lieutenant of Pizarro, had his first interview 
with the envoy of Atahuallpa, the latter humbly addressed 



200 . AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

him as Viracocha, the great God, son of the Sun, and told 
him that it was Huayna Capac's last command to pay 
homage to the white men when they should arrive.* 

We need no longer entertain about such statements that 
suspicion or incredulity which so many historians have 
thought it necessary to indulge in. They are too generally 
paralleled in other American hero-myths to leave the 
slightest doubt as to their reality, or as to their significance. 
They are again the expression of the expected return of the 
Light-God, after his departure and disapi^earance in the 
western horizon. Modifications of what was originally a 
statement of a simple occurrence of daily routine, they 
became transmitted in the limbeck of mythology to the 
story of the beneficent god of the past, and the promise of 
golden days when again he should return to the people 
whom erstwhile he ruled and taught. 

The Qquichuas expected the return of Viracocha, not 
merely as an earthly ruler to govern their nation, but as a 
god who, by his divine power, would call the dead to life. 
Precisely as in ancient Egypt the literal belief in the resur- 
rection of tlie body led to the custom of preserving the 
corpses with the most sedulous care, so in Peru the 
cadaver was mummied and deposited in the most secret 
and inaccessible spots, so that it should remain undisturbed 
to the great day of resurrection. 

And when was that to be? 

' Garcilasso de La Vega, Comentarios Reales, Lib. ix, caps, xiv, 
XV ; Cicza de Leon, Jielacion, MS. iu Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 
Vol. I, p. 320. The latter is the second part of Cieza de Leon. 



THE RESURRECTION. 201 

We are not left iu doubt on this point. It was to be 
when Viraeocha should return to earth in his bodily form. 
Then he would restore the dead to life, and they should 
enjoy the good things of a land far more glorious than this 
work-a-day world of ours.^ 

As at the first meeting between the races the name of the 
hero-god was applied to the conquering strangers, so to this 
day the custom has continued. A recent traveler tells us, 
"Among Los Indios del Campo, or Indians of the fields, the 
llama herdsmen of the i:>u,naii, and the fishermen of the lakes, 
the common salutation to strangers of a fair skin and blue 
eyes is ' Tal-tal Viraeocha.' ^' ^ Even if this is used now, 
as M. Wiener seems to think,^ merely as a servile flattery, 
there is no doubt but that at the beginning it was applied 
because the white strangers were identified with the white 
and bearded hero and his followers of their culture myth, 
whose return had been foretold by their priests. 

Are we obliged to explain these similarities to the 
Mexican tradition by supposing some ancient intercourse 
between these peoples, the arrival, for instance, and settle- 
ment on the highlands around Lake Titicaca, of some 
" Toltec" colony, as has been maintained by such able 
writers on Peruvian antiquities as Leonce Angrand and J. 

' " Dijeron quellos oyeron deciv a sus padres y pasados que uu Vira- 
eocha habia de revolver la tierra, y habia de resucitar esos muertos, y 
que estos habian de bibir en esta tierra." Informacion de las Idolatras 
de los Incas 6 Indios, in the Coll. de Does, ineditos del Archivo de 
Indias, vol. xxi, p. 152. 

^ E. G. Squier, Travels in Peru, p. 414. 
' C. Wiener, Perou et Bolivie, p. 717. 



202 AMEEICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

J. von Tschudi?^ I think not. The great events of 
nature, day and night, storm and sunshine, are everywhere 
the same, and the impressions they produced on the minds 
of this race were the same, whether the scene was in the 
forests of the north temperate zone, amid the palms of the 
tropics, or on the lofty and barren plateaux of the Andes. 
These impressions found utterance in similar myths, and 
were represented in art under similar forms. It is, there- 
fore, to the oneness of cause and of racial psychology, 
not to ancient migrations, that we must look to explain the 
identities of myth and representation that we find between 
such widely sundered nations. 

^ L. Angrand, Lettre sur les AntiquiMs de Tiaguanaco et V Origine 
prt^sumabh de la plus ancienne civilisation du Uaut- Ptrou. Extrait 
du 24eme vol. de la Revue Generale d' Architecture, 1866. Von 
Tschudi, Z)as Ollantadrama, -p. 111-^. The latter says : " Der von 
dem Plateau von Auahuac ausgewanderte Stainra verpflanzte seine 
Gesittung und die HauptzUge seiner Religion durch das Avestliche 
Siidaraerica, etc." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE EXTENSION AND INFLUENCE OF THE TYPICAL 
HERO-MYTH. 

The Typical Myth Found in Many Parts op the Continent — 
Difficulties in Tracing it— Religious Evolution in America 
Similar to That in the Old World— Failure op Christianity 
IN the Red Race. 

The Culture Myth of the Tarascos of Mechoacan — That of the 
KicHEs OP Guatemala — The Votan Myth of the Tzendals of 
Chiapas — A Fragment of a Mixe Myth — The Hero-God of 
THE Muyscas of New Granada — Of the Tupi-Guaranay Stem 
of Paraguay and Brazil — Myths of the DibNi); of British 
America. 

Sun Worship in America — Germs of Progress in American 
Religions — Relation of Religion and Morality — The Light- 
God A Moral and Beneficent Creation— His Worship was 
Elevating— Moral Condition of Native Societies Before the 
Conquest — Progress in the Definition of the Idea of God in 
Peru, Mexico, and Yucatan— Erroneous Statements About the 
Morals of the Natives— Evolution op their Ethical Prin- 
ciples. 

In the foregoing chapters I have passed in review the hero- 
myths of five nations widely asunder in location, in culture 
and in language. I have shown the strange similarity in their 
accounts of their mysterious early benefactor and teacher, 
and their still more strange, because true, presentiments of 
the arrival of pale-faced conquerors from the East. 

I have selected these nations because their myths have 
been most fully recorded, not that they alone possessed this 
striking legend. It is, I repeat, the fundamental myth in the 
religious lore of American nations. Not, indeed, that it can 

203 



204 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

be discovered in all tribes, especially in the amplitude of 
incident which it possesses among some. But there are 
comparatively few of the native mythologies that do not 
betray some of its elements, some fragments of it, and, 
often enough to justify us in the supposition that had we 
the complete body of their sacred stories, we should find 
this one in quite as defined a form as I have given it. 

The student of American mythology, unfortunately, 
labors under peculiar disadvantages. When he seeks for his 
material, he finds an extraordinary dearth of it. The mis- 
sionaries usually refused to preserve the native myths, be- 
caused they believed them harmful, or at least foolish ; while 
men of science, who have had such opportunities, rejected all 
those that seemed the least like a Biblical story, as they 
suspected them to be modern and valueless compositions, 
and thus lost the very life of the genuine ancient faiths. 

A further disadvantage is the slight attention which has 
been paid to the aboriginal American tongues, and the 
sad deficiency of material lor their study. It is now 
recognized on all hands that the key of a mythology is to 
be found in the iano-uaore of its believers. As a German 
writer remarks, "the formation of the language and the 
evolution of the myth go hand in hand."^ We must know 

^ " In (lev Spniche herrscht inimer mid enieut sich stets die sinnliche 
Anschauiini^, die vor Jalirtausoiidon mitdom j^laubigen Sinn vcrmahlt 
die Mytholojiien schuf, und gorade diircli sie wird es am klarsten, wie 
Spraflienscli()i)fun<!; und mytliologisehe Entwicklung, der Ausdruck 
des Denkens und Glaubens, einst Hand in Hand gegangen." Dr. F. 
L.W. Schwartz, Z^er Ursprutig der Mifthologiedargdegt an Griechischer 
und Deutscher Sage, p. 23 (Berlin, 1860). 



RELIGIOUS EVOLUTION. 205 

the language of a tribe, at least we must understand the 
grammatical construction and have facilities to trace out 
the meaning and derivation of names, before we can obtain 
any accurate notion of the foundation in nature of its 
religious beliefs. No convenient generality will help us. 

I make these remarks as a sort of apology for the short- 
comings of the present study, and especially for the 
imperfections of the fragments I have still to present. 
They are, however, sufficiently defined to make it certain 
that they belonged to cycles of myths closely akin to those 
already given. They will serve to support my thesis that 
the seemingly confused and puerile fables of the native 
Americans are fully as worthy the attention of the student 
of human nature as the more poetic narratives of the Veda 
or the Edda. The red man felt out after God with like 
childish gropings as his white brother in Central Asia. 
"When his course was interrupted, he was pursuing the same 
path toward the discovery of truth. In the words of a 
thoughtful writer: ''In a world wholly separated from 
that which it is customary to call the Old World, the 
religious evolution of man took place precisely in the same 
manner as in those surroundings which produced the 
civilization of western Europe."^ 

But this religious development of the red man was 
violently broken by the forcible imposition of a creed 
which he could not understand, and which was not suited 

^ Girard de Rialle, La Mythologie Compar^e, vol. i, p. 363 (Parisi 
1878). 



206 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

to his wants, and by the heavy yoke of a priesthood totally 
out of sympathy with his line of progress. What has been 
the result? "Has Christianity," asks the writer I have 
just quoted, "exerted a progressive action on these peoples? 
Has it brought them forward, has it aided their natural 
evolution? We are obliged to answer, No." ' This sad 
reply is repeated by careful observers who have studied 
dispassionately the natives in their homes.^ The only 
diflference in the results of the two great divisions of the 
Christian world seems to be that on Catholic missions has 
followed the debasement, on Protestant missions the 
destruction of the race. 

It may be objected to this that it was not Christianity, 
but its accompaniments, the greedy horde of adventurers, 
the profligate traders, the selfish priests, and the unscrupu- 
lous officials, that wrought the degradation of the native 

1 Girard de Rialle, ibid, p. 362. 

^ Those who would convince themselves of this may read the work 
of Don Francisco Pimentel, Memoria sobre las Causas que han 
originado la Situacion Actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico (Mexico, 
1864), and that of the Licentiate Apolinar Garcia y Garcia, Uistoria 
dela Guerra de Castas de Yucatan, Prologo (M6rida, 1865). That 
the Indians of the United States have dii-ectly and positively degen- 
erated in moral sense as a race, since the introduction of Christianity, 
was also very decidedly the opinion of the late Prof. Theodor Waitz, a 
most competent ethnologist. See Die Indianer Nordamerica^s. Eine 
Studie, von Theodor Waitz, p. 39, etc. (Leipzig, 1865). This opinion 
was also that of the visiting committee of the Society of Friends -who 
reported on the Indian Tribes in 1842 ; see the Report of a Visit to 
Some of the Tribes of Indians West of the Mississippi Hirer, by John 
D. Lang and Samuel Taylor, Jr. (New York, 1843). The language of 
this Report is calm, but positive as to the increased moral degradation 
of tiic tribes, as the direct result of contact with the whites. 



FAILURE OF CHRISTIANITY. 207 

race. Be it so. Then I merely modify my assertion^ by 
saying that Christianity has shown itself incapable of 
controlling its inevitable adjuncts, and that it would have 
been better, morally and socially, for the American race 
never to have known Christianity at all, than to have 
received it on the only terms on which it has been possible 
to offer it. 

With the more earnestness, therefore, in view of this 
acknowledged failure of Christian effort, do I turn to the 
native beliefs, and desire to vindicate for them a dignified 
position among the faiths which have helped to raise man 
above the level of the brute, and inspired him with hope 
and ambition for betterment. 

For this purpose I shall offer some additional evidence ' 
of the extension of the myth I have set forth, and then 
proceed to discuss its influence on the minds of its 
believers. 

The Tarascos were an interesting nation who lived in 
the province of Michoacan, due west of the valley of 
Mexico. They were a polished race, speaking a sonorous, 
vocalic language, so bold in war that their boast was that 
they had never been defeated, and yet their religious rites 
were almost bloodless, and their preference was for peace. 
The hardy Aztecs had been driven back at every attempt 
they made to conquer Michoacan, but its ruler submitted 
himself without a murmur to Cortes, recognizing in him 
an opponent of the common enemy, and a warrior of more 
than human powers. 



208 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

Among these Tarascos we find the same legend of a 
hero-god who brought tliem out of barbaristn, gave them 
laws, arranged their calendar, which,, in principles, was 
the same as that of the Aztecs and Mayas, and decided on 
the form of their government. His name was Surites or 
Curicaberis, w^ords which, from my limited resources in 
that tongue, I am not able to analyze. He dwelt in the 
town Cromuscuaro, which name means the Watch-tower 
or Look-out, and the hour in which he gave his instruc- 
tious was always at sunrise, just as the orb of light ap- 
peared on the eastern horizon. One of the feasts which he 
appointed to be celebrated in his honor was called Zitacu- 
arencaaro, which melodious word is said by the Spanish 
missionaries to mean " the resurrection from death." When 
to this it is added that he distinctly predicted that a white 
race of men should arrive in the country, and that he him- 
self should return,^ his identity with the light-gods of 
similar American myths is too manifest to require argument. 

The king of the Tarascos was considered merely the 
vicegerent of the absent hero-god, and ready to lay down 
the sceptre when Curicaberis should return to earth. 

^ P. Francisco Xavier Alegre, Historia de la Compailia de Jesus 
en la Nueva Espafia, Tomo i, pp. 91, 92 (Mexico, 1811). The 
authorities whom Alegre quotes are P. F. Alonso de la Rea, Cronica 
de Mechoacan (Mexico, 1G48), and D. Basalenque, Cronica de San 
Augustin de Mechoacan (Mexico, 1673). I regret that I have been 
unable to find either of these books in any library in tlie United States. 
It is a great pity that the student of American liistory is so often 
limited in his investigations in this country, by the lack of material. 
It is sad to think that such an opulent and intelligent land does not 
possess a single complete library of its own history. 



MYTHS OF THE TARASCOS. 209 

We do not know whether the myth of the Four Broth- 
ers prevailed among the Tarascos ; but there is hardly a 
nation on the continent among whojn the number Four 
was more distinctly sacred. The kingdom was divided 
into four parts (as also among the Itzas, Qquichuas and 
numerous other tribes), the four rulers of which constituted, 
with the king, the sacred council of five, in imitation, I 
can hardly doubt, of the hero-god, and the four deities of 
the winds. 

The goddess of water and the rains, the female 
counterpart of Curicaberis, was the goddess Cueravaperi. 
"She is named," says the authority I quote, "in all 
their fables and speeches. They say that she is the mother 
of all the gods of the earth, and that it is she who bestows 
the harvests and the germination of seeds." With her ever 
went four attendant goddesses, the personifications of the 
rains from the four cardinal points. At the sacred dances, 
which were al^io dramatizations of her supposed action, 
these attendants were rei)resented by four priests clad 
respectively in white, yellow, red and black, to represent 
the four colors of the clouds.^ In other words, she doubt- 
less bore the same, relation to Curicaberis that Ixcliel did 
to Itzamna in the mythology of the Mayas, or the rainbow 

' Relacion de las Ceremonias y Eitos, etc., de Mechoacan, in the 
Coleccion de Documentos para la Historia de Espaiia, vol. liii, pp. 
13, 19, 20. This account is anonymous, but wus written in the 
sixteentii century, by some one familiar with the subject. A handsome 
MS. of it, with colored illustrations (these of no great value, however), 
is in the Library of Congress, obtained from the collection of the late 
Col. Peter Force. 

14 



210 AMERICAN HEEO-MYTHS. 

goddess to Arama in the religious legends of the Moxos/ 
She was the divinity that presided over the rains, and hence 
over fertility and the harvests, standing in intimate relation 
to tlie god of the sun's rays and the four winds. 

The Kiches of Guatemala were not distant relatives of 
the Mayas of Yucatan, and their mythology has been pre- 
served to us in a rescript of their national book, the Foj>ol 
Vuh. Evidently they had borrowed something from Aztec 
sources, and a flavor of Christian teaching is occasionally 
noticeable in this record ; but for all that it is one of the 
most valuable we possess on the subject. 

It begins by connecting the creation of men and things 
with the appearance of light. In other words, as in so 
many mythologies, the history of the world is that of the 
day; each begins with a dawn. Thus the Popol Vuh 
reads : — 

"This is how the heaven exists, how the Heart of Heaven 
exists, he, the god, whose name isQabauil." 

" His word came in the darkness to the Lord, to Gucumatz, 
and it spoke with the Lord, with Gucumatz." 

"They spoke together; they consulted and planned; 
they understood ; they united in words and plans." 

"As, they consulted, the day appeared, the white light 

came forth, raanki'nd was produced, while thus they held 

counsel about the growth of trees and vines, about life and 

mankind, in iha darkness, in the night (the creation 

^ See above, page 150. 



MYTHS OF THE KICHES. 211 

was brought about), by the Heart of Heaven, whose name 
is Hurakan."^ 

But the national culture-hero of the Kiches seems to have 
been Xbalanque, a name which has the literal meaning, 
" Little Tiger Deer," and is a symbolical appellation refer- 
ring to days in their calendar. Although many of his 
deeds are recounted in the Popol Vuh, that work does not 
furnish us his complete mythical history. From it and 
other sources we learn that he was one of the twins sup- 
posed to have been born of a virgin mother in Utatlan, 
the central province of the Kiches, to have been the guide 
and protector of their nation, and in its interest to have 
made a journey to the Underworld, in order to revenge 
himself on his powerful enemies, its rulers. He was suc- 
cessful, and having overcome them, he set free the Sun, 
which they had seized, and restored to life four hundred 
youths whom they had slain, and who, in fact, were the 
stars of heaven. On his return, he emerged from the 
bowels of the earth and the place of darkness, at a point 
far to the east of Utatlan, at some place located by the 
Kiches near Coban, in Vera Paz, and came again to his 
people, looking to be received with fitting honors. But 
like Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl, and others of these worthies, 
the story goes that they treated him with scant courtesy, 
and in anger at their ingratitude, he left them forever, in 
order to seek a nobler people. 

I need not enter into a detailed discussion of this myth, 
^ Popol Vuh, le Livre Sacr^ des Quiches, p. 9 (Paris, 1861). 



212 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

many points in which are obscure, tlie less so as I have 
treated them at length in a monograph readily accessible 
to the reader who would push his inquiries further. 
Enough if I quote the conclusion to which I there arrive. 
It is as follows : — 

'' Suffice it to say that the hero-god, whose name is thus 
compounded of two signs in the calendar, who is one of 
twins born of a virgin, who performs many surprising 
feats of prowess on the earth, who descends into the world 
of darkness and sets free the sun, moon and stars to 
perform their daily and nightly journeys through the 
heavens, presents in these and other traits such numerous 
resemblances to the Divinity of Light, the Day-maker of 
the northern hunting tribes, reappearing in so many 
American legends, that I do not hesitate to identify the 
narrative of Xbalanque and his deeds as but another ver- 
sion of this wide-spread, this well-nigh universal myth."^ 

Few of our hero-myths have given occasion for wilder 
speculation than that of Votan. He was the culture 
hero of the Tzendals, a branch of the ^laya race, whose 
home was in Chiapas and Tabasco. Even the usually 
cautious Humboldt suggested that his name might be a 
form of Odin or Buddha! As for more imaginative 
writers, they have made not the least difficulty in discover- 
ing that it is identical with the Odon of the Tarascos, the 
Oton of the Othomis, the Poudan of the East Indian 

^ The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths, Central America, by 
Daniel G. Brinton, M. D., iu the Proceedings of the American Philo- 
sophical Society for 1881. 



THE STORY OF VOTAN. 213 

Tamuls, tlie Vautloux of the Louisiana negroes, etc. All 
this has been done withoiit any attempt having been made 
to ascertain the precise meaning and derivation of the name 
Votau. Superficial phonetic similarities have been the 
only guide. 

We are not well acquainted with the Votan myth. 
It appears to have been written down some time in the 
seventeenth century, by a Christianized native. His 
manuscript of five or six folios, in the Tzendal tongue, 
came into the possession of Nuiiez de la Vega, Bishop of 
Chiapas, about 1690, and later into the hands of Don 
Ramon Ordonez y Aguiar, where it was seen by Dr. 
Paul Felix Cabrera, about 1790. AVliat has become of it 
is not known. 

No complete translation of it was made ; and the extracts 
or abstracts given by the authors just named are most 
unsatisfactory, and disfigured by ignorance and prejudice. 
None of them, probably, was familiar with the Tzendal 
tongue, especially in its ancient form. AVhat they tell us 
runs as follows: — 

At some indefinitely remote epoch, Votau came from 
the far Kast. He was sent by God to divide out and 
assign to the different races of men the earth on which 
they dwell, and to give to each its own language. The 
land whence lie came was vaguely called ualmn uotan, the 
land of Votan. 

His message was especially to the Tzendals. Previous 
to his arrival they were ignorant, barbarous, and without 



214 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

fixed habitations. He collected them into villages, taught 
them how to cultivate the maize and cotton, and invented 
the hieroglyphic signs, which they learned to carve on the 
walls of their temples. It is even said that he wrote his 
own history in them. 

He instituted civil laws for their government, and im- 
parted to them the proper ceremonials of religious worship. 
For this reason he was also called " Master of the Sacred 
Drum," the instrument with Avhich they summoned the 
votaries to the ritual dances. 

They especially remembered him as the inventor of their 
calendar. His name stood third in the week of twenty 
days, and was the first Dominical sign, according to which 
they counted their year, corresponding to the Kan of the 
Mayas. 

As a city-builder, he was spoken of as the founder of 
Palenque, Nachan, Huehuetlan — in fact, of any ancient 
place the origin of which had been forgotten. Near the 
last mentioned locality, Huehuetlan in Soconusco, he was 
reported to have constructed an underground temple by 
merely blowing with his breath. In this gloomy mansion 
he deposited his treasures, and appointed a priestess to 
guard it, for whose assistance he created the tapirs. 

Votan brought with him, according to one statement, 
or, according to another, was followed from his native 
land by, certain attendants or subordinates, called in the 
myth tzequil, petticoated, from the long and flowing robes 
they wore. These aided him in the work of civilization. 



THE DEPAKTURE OF VOTAN. 215 

Oil four occasions he returned to his former home, dividing 
the country, when he was about to leave, into four dis- 
tricts, over which he placed these attendants. 

When at last the time came for his final departure, he 
did not pass through the valley of death, as must all 
mortals, but he penetrated through a cave into the under- 
earth, and found his way to " the root of heaven." With 
this mysterious expression, the native myth closes its 
account of hini.-^ 

He was worshiped by the Tzendals as their principal 
deity and their beneficent patron. But he had a rival in 
their religious observances, the feared Yalahaa, Lord of 
Blackness, or Lord of the Waters. He was represented as 
a terrible warrior, cruel to the people, and one of the first 
of men.^ 

According to an unpublished work by Fuentes, Votan 

^ The references to the Votan myth are Nunez de la Vega, Conatitu- 
Clones Diocesanas, Prologo (Roniae, 1702) ; Boturini, Idea de una 
Nueva Historia de la America septentrional, pp. 114, etseq., who 
discusses the former ; Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, Teatro Critico Ameri- 
cano, translated, London, 1822 ; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist, des 
Nations Civilis^es de Mexique, vol. i, chap, ii, who gives some addi- 
tional points from Ordonez ; and H. de Charencey, Le Mi/the de Votan; 
Ef}ide siir les Origines Asiatiques de la CioiUzation Americainc. 
(Alencon, 1871). 

* Yalahau is referred to by Bishop Nunez de la Vega as venerated 
in Occhuc and other Tzendal towns of Chiapas. He translates it 
'" Senor de los Negros." The terminal a^au is pure Maya, meaning 
king, ruler, lord ; Yal is also Maya, and means water. The god of 
the waters, of darkness, night and blackness, is often one and thesame 
in mythology, and probably had we the myth complete, he would prove 
to be Votan' s brother and antagonist. 



216 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

"was one of four brothers, the common ancestors of the 
southwestern branches of the Maya family.^ 

All these traits of this popular hero are too exactly 
similar to those of the other representatives of this myth, for 
them to leave any doubt as to what we are to make of Votan. 
Like the rest of them, he and his long-robed attendants are 
personifications of the eastern light and its rays. Though 
but uncritical epitomes of a fragmentary myth about him 
remain, they are enough to stamp it as that which meets 
us so constantly, no matter where we turn in the New 
World.' 

It scarcely seems necessary for me to point out that his 
name Votan is in no way akin to Otliomi or Tarasco roots, 
still less to the Norse Wodan or the Indian Buddha, but 
is derived from a radical in pure Maya. Yet I will do so, 
in order, if possible, to put a stop to such visionary 
etymologies. 

^ Quoted in Emeterio Pineda, Descripcion Geograjica de Chiapas y 
Socoimsco, p. 9 (Mexico, 1845). 

2 The title of the Tzendal MSS., is said by Cabrera to be " Proof 
that I am a Chan." Tlie author writes in the person of Votan liimself, 
and proves his claim that he is a Chan, "because he is a Chivim." 
Chan has been translated serpent , on chivim the commentators have 
almost given up. Supposing that the serpent was a totem of one of 
tiie Tzendal clans, then the effort would be to .show that their hero-god 
was of that totem ; but how this is shown by his being proved a 
chiciin is not obvious. The term iialiim chicim, the land of the 
chivim. appears to be that applied, in the MS., to the country of the 
Tzendals, or a part of it. The words chi uiiiic would mean, " men of 
the shore," and might be a local name applied to a clan on the coast. 
But in default of the original text we can but surmise as to the precise 
meaning of the writer. 



THE NAME VOTAN. 217 

As we are informed by Bishop Nuilez de la Vega, uotan 
in Tzendal means heart. Votan was spoken of as "the 
heirt or soul of his people." This derivation has been 
questioned, because the word for the heart in the other Maya 
dialects is different, and it has been suggested that this was 
but an example of "otosis," where a foreign proper name 
was turned into a familiar common noun. But these 
objections do not hold good. 

In regard to derivation, uotan is from the pure Maya 
root-word tan, which means primarily " the breast," or that 
which is in front or in the middle of the body ; with the 
possessive prefix it becomes utan. In Tzendal this word 
means both breast and heart. This is well illustrated by an 
ancient manuscript, dating from 1707, in my possession. It 
is a guide to priests for administering the sacraments in 
Spanish and Tzendal. I quote the passage in point :^ — 

"Con todo tu corazon, hirieii- II Ta zpizil auotan, xafigh znij 
dote en los pechos, di, conmigo." || auotan, zghot/oc, alagh ghoyoc. — 

Here, a is the possessive of the second person, and uotan 
is used both for heart and breast. Thus the derivation of 
the word from the Maya radical is clear. 

The figure of speech by which the chief divinity is called 
" the heart of the earth," " the heart of the sky," is common 
in these dialects, and occurs repeatedly in the Popol Vah, 
the sacred legend of the Kiches of Guatemala.^ 

^ Modo de Administrar los Sacramentos en Castellano y Tzendal, 
1707. 4toMS., p. 13. 

2 Thus we have [Popol Vuh, Part i, p. 2) uqux cho, Heart of the 
Lakes, and u qux palo, Heart of the Ocean, as names of the highest 



218 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

The immediate neiglibors of the Tzendals were the 
Mixes and Zoques, the former resident in the central 
mountains of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the hitter 
ralher in the lowlands and toward the eastern coast. Tiie 
Mixes nowadays number but a few villages, whose inhab- 
itants are reported as drunken and worthless, but the time 
was when they were a powerful and warlike nation. They 
are in nowise akin to the Maya stock, although tliey are so 
classed in Mr. H. H. Bancroft's excellent work.^ They 
have, however, a distinct relationship with the Zoques, 
about thirty per cent of the words in the two languages 
being similar.^ The Zoques, whose mythology we unfor- 

divinity ; later, we find tiqux call, Heart of the Sky (p. 8), u qi.x uleu, 
Heart of the Earth, p. 12, 14, etc. 

I may here repeat what I have elsewhere written on this figurative 
expression in the Maya languages: " The literal or physical sense of 
the word heart is not that which is here intended. In these dialects 
this word has a richer metaphorical meaning than in our tongue. It 
stands fur all the psychical powers, the memory, will and reasoning 
faculties, tlie life, the spirit, the soul. It would be more correct to 
render these names the 'Spirit' or 'Soul' of the lake, etc., than 
the 'Heart.' They indicate a dimly understood sense of the unity of 
spirit or energy in all the various manifestations of organic and 
inorganic existence." The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths, 
Central America, by Daniel G. Brinton, in Proceedings of the American 
Philosophical Society, vol. xix, 1881, p. G23. 

^ " Mijes, Maya nation," The Native Races of the Pacific States, 
Vol. V, p. 712. 

^ Apiuites sobre la Lengna Mije, por C. H. Bercndt, m.d., MS., in 
my hands. The comparison is made of 158 words in the two 
languages, of which 44 have marked affinity, besides the numerals, 
eight out often of which are the same. Many of the remaining words 
are related to the Zapotec, and there are very few and faint resem- 
blances to Maya dialects. One of them may possibly be in this name, 
Votan (uotan), heart, however. In Mixe the word for heart is hot. 
I note this merely to complete my observations on the Votan myth. 



A MYTH OF THE MIXES. 219 

Innately know little or nothing about, adjoined the Tzen- 
dals, and were in constant intercourse with them. 

We have but faint traces of the early mythology of 
these tribes ; but they praserved some legends which show 
that they also partook of the belief, so general among their 
neighbors, of a beneficent culture-god. 

Til is myth relates tiiat their first father, who was also 
their Supreme God, came forth from a cave in a lofty 
mountain in their country, to govern and direct them. 
He covered the soil with forests, located the springs and 
streams, peopled them with fish and the woods with game 
and birds, and taught the tribe how to catch them. They 
did not believe that he had died, but that after a certain 
length of time, he, with his servants and captives, all laden 
with bright gleaming gold, retired into the cave and closed 
its mouth, not to remain there, but to reappear at some 
other part of the world and confer similar favors on other 
nations. 

The name, or one of the names, of this benefactor was 
Condoy, the meaning of which my facilities do not enable 
me to ascertain.^ 

There is scarcely enough of this to reveal the exact 
lineaments of their hero ; but if we may judge from these 
fragments as given by Carriedo, it appears to be of pre- 
cisely the same class as the other hero-myths I have col- 
lected in this volume. Historians of authority assure us 

^ Juan B. Carriedo, Estudios Historicos y Estadisticos del Estadu 
Libre de Oaxaca, p. 3 (Oaxaca, 1847). 



220 AMERICAN HERO MYTHS. 

that the Mixes, Zoques and Zapotecs united in the expec- 
tation, founded on their ancient myths and propliecies, of the 
arrival, some time, of men from the East, fair of hue and 
mighty in power, masters of the lightning, who would 
occupy the land.^ 

Oh the lofty plateau of the Andes, in New Granada, 
where, though nearly under the equator, the temperature is 
that of a perpetual spring, was the fortunate home of 
the Muyscas. It is the true El Dorado of America ; 
every mountain stream a Pactolus, and every hill a mine 
of gold. The natives were peaceful in disposition, skilled 
in smelting and beating the precious metal that was every- 
where at hand, lovers of agriculture, and versed in the arts 
of spinning, weaving and dying cotton. Their remaining 
sculptures prove them to have been of no mean ability in 
designing, and it is asserted that they had a form of 
writing, of which their signs for the numerals have alone 
been preserved. 

The knowledge of these various arts they attributed to 

the instructions of a wise stranger who dwelt among them 

many cycles before the arrival of the Spaniards. He came 

from the East, from the llanos of Venezuela or beyond them, 

and it was said that the path he made was broad and long, 

a hundred leagues in length, and led directly to the holy 

temple at his shrine at Sogamoso. In the province of 

Ubaque his footprints on the solid rock were reverently 

^ Ibid., p. 04, nutc, quoting from the works of Las Casus aiul Fran- 
cisco Burgoa. 



MYTH OF THE MUYSCAS. 221 

pointed out long after the Conquest. His hair was 
abundant, his beard fell to his waist, and he dressed in 
long and flowing robes. He went among the nations of the 
plateaux, addressing each in its own dialect, taught them 
to live in villages and to observe just laws. Near the 
village of Goto was a high hill held in special veneration, 
for from its prominent summit he was wont to address the 
people who gathered round its base. Therefore it was 
esteemed a sanctuary, holy to the living and the dead. 
Princely families from a distance carried their dead there 
to be interred, because this teacher had said that man does 
not perish when he dies, but shall rise again. It was held 
that this would be more certain to occur in the. very spot 
where he announced this doctrine. Every sunset, when he 
had finished his discourse, he retired into a cave in the 
mountain, not to reappear again until the next morning. 

For many years, some said for two thousand years, did 
he rule the people with equity, and then he departed, going 
back to the East whence he came, said some authorities, but 
others averred that he rose up to heaven. At any rate, 
before he left, he appointed a successor in the sovereignty, 
and recommended him to pursue the paths of justice.^ 

What led the Spanish missionaries to suspect that this 
was one of the twelve apostles, was not only these doctrines, 

^ "Afirman que fue trasladado al cielo, y que al tierapo desu partida 
dexo al Cacique de aquella Provincia por heredero de su santidad i 
poderio." Lucas Fernandez Piedrahita, Historia General de las 
Conquistas del Naeoo Reyno de Granada, Lib. i, cap. in (Amberes, 
1688). 



222 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

but the undoubted fact that they found the symbol of the 
cross already a religious emblem among this people. It 
appeared in their sacred paintings, and especially, they 
erected one over the grave of a person who had died from 
the bite of a serpent. 

A little careful investigation will permit us to accept 
these statements as quite true, and yet give them a very 
different interpretation. 

That this culture-hero arrives from the East and returns 

to the East are points that at once excite the suspicion that 

he was the personification of the Light. But when we 

come to his names, no doubt can remain. These were 

various, but one of the most usual was Chimizapagua, 

which, we are told, means " a messenger from Chhninigogua." 

In the cosmogonical myths of the Muyscas this was the 

home or source of Light, and was a name applied to the 

demiurgic force. In that mysterious dwelling, so their 

account ran, light was shut up, and the world lay in 

primeval gloom. At a certain time the light manifested 

itself, and the dawn of the first morning appeared, the 

light being carried to the four quarters of the earth by 

great black birds, who blew the air and winds from their 

beaks. Modern grammarians profess themselves unable to 

explain the exact meaning of the name Chhninigagua, but 

it is a compound, in which, evidently, appear the words 

chie, light, and gagua, Sun.' 

^ Uricoechea says, "al principio del mundo la luz estaba encerrada 
en unacosa que no podian describir i que llamaban Chiininigague, 6 
El Criador." Gramatica de la Lengua Chibcha, Introd., p. xix. 



NAMES OF BOCHICA. 223 

Other names applied to this hero-god were Nenatere- 
queteba, Boehica, and Zuhe, or Sua, the last mentioned 
being also the ordinary word for the Sun. He was re- 
ported to have been of light complexion, and when the 
Spaniards first arrived they were supposed to be his envoys, 
and were called sua or gagua, ]nst as from the memory of 
a similar myth in Peru they were addressed as Yira- 
cochas. 

In his form as Boehica, he is represented as the supreme 
male divinity, whose female associate is the Rainbow, 
Cuchaviva, goddess of rains and waters, of the fertility of 
the fields, of medicine, and of child-bearing in women, a 
relationship which I have already explained.^ 

Wherever the widespread Tupi-Guaranay race ex- 
tended — from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata and the 
boundless plains of the Pampas, north to the northernmost 
islands of the West Indian Archipelago — the early ex- 
plorers found the natives piously attributing their knowl- 
edire of the arts of life to a venerable and benevolent old 
man whom they called " Our Ancestor," Tamu, or Tume, 
or Zume. 

Okie in this tongue means ligbt, moon, month, honor, and is also the 
first person plural of the personal pronoun. Ibid., p. 94. Father Simon 
says gagua is "elnombre del mismo sol," though ordinarily Sun is 
Sua. 

^ The principal authority for the mythology of the Muyscas, oY 
Chibchas, is Padre Pedro Simon, NoUcias Historiales de las Conquis- 
tas de Tierra Firme en el Nuevo Reyno de Granada, Pt. iv, caps, ii, 
III, IT, printed in Kingsborough, Mexican Antiquities, vol. viii, and 
Piedrahita as above quoted. 



224 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

The early Jesuit missionaries to the Guaranis and 
affiliated tribes of Paraguay and southern Brazil, have 
much to say of this personage, and some of them were 
convinced that he could have been no other than the 
Apostle St. Thomas on his proselytizing journey around 
the world. 

The legeud was that Pay Znme, as he was called in 
Paraguay {Pay = magician, diviner, priest), came from 
the East, from the Sun-rising, in years long gone by. He 
instructed the people in the arts of hunting and agricul- 
ture, especially in the culture and preparation of the mani- 
oca plant, their chief source of vegetable food. Near the 
city of Assumption is situated a lofty rock, around 
which, says the myth, he was accustomed to gather the 
people, while he stood above them on its summit, and de- 
livered his instructions and his laws, just as did Quetzal- 
coatl from the top of the mountain Tzatzitcpec, the Hill of 
Shouting. The spot where he stood is still marked by the 
impress of his feet, which the pious natives of a later day 
took pride in pointing out as a convincing proof that their 
ancestors received and remembered the preachings of St. 
Thomas.^ This was not a suy-gestion of their later learn- 

1 "Juxta Paniqiiariae metropolim rupes utcumquu cuspidata, sod in 
modicain i)lauitiom desinens cernitur, in cujns siunmitate vestigia 
pedum hunianoiuiu saxo iiupiessa adliuc nianent, alBrmantibus con- 
stanter indigenia, ex eo loco Apostolum Thoinain raultitudini unde- 
quaque ad enm audiendum confluenti solitum fuissc legem divinara 
tradere : et addunt mandiocae, ex qua farinam suam ligneam con- 
ficiunt, plantandie rationem ab eodem aceepisse." P. Nicolao del 
Techo, Hidoria Provincice Paraquarice Societatis Jesu, Lib. vi, cap. 
IV (folio, Leodii, 1673). 



THE PATH OF THE GOD. 225 

ing, but merely a christianized term given to their au- 
thentic ancient legend. As early as 1552, when Father 
Emanuel Nobrega was visiting the missions of Brazil, he 
heard the legend, and learned of a locality where not only 
the marks of the feet, but also of the hands of tl>e hero- 
god had been indelibly impressed upon the hard rock. 
Not satisfied with the mere report, he visited the spot and 
saw them with his own eyes, but indulged in some skepti- 
cism as to their origin.^ 

The story was that wherever this hero-god walked, he 
left behind him a well-marked path, which was permanent, 
and as the Muyscas of New Granada pointed out the path 
of Bochica, so did the Guaranays that of Zume, which the 
missionaries regarded " not without astonishment."^ He 
lived a certain length of time with his people and then left 

^ "Ipse abii," lie writes in his well known Letter, " et propriis 
oculis inspexi, quatuor _ pedum et digitorum satis alt6 impressa ve- 
stigia, quae nonnunquam aqua excrescens cooperit." The reader 
will remember the similar eveat in the history of Quetzalcoatl (see 
above, page 114). 

* " E Brasilia in Guairaniam euntibus spectabilis adhuc semita 
viditur, quam ab Sancto Thoma ideo incolae vocant, quod per earn 
Apostolus iter fecisse credatur ; quae semita quovis anni tempore eum- 
dem statum conservat, modic6 in ea crescentibus herbis, ab adjacent^ 
campo multum herbescenli prorsus dissimilibus, prsebetque speciem 
viae artificios6 ductae ; quam Socii nostri Guairaniam excolentes per- 
saepe non sine stupore perspexisse se testantur." Nicolao del Techo, 
vbi suprd, Lib. vi, cap. iv. 

The connection of this myth with the course of the sun in the sky, 
" the path of the bright God," as it is called in the Veda, appears ob- 
vious. So also in later legend we read of the wonderful slot or trail of 
the dragon Fafnir across the Glittering Heath, and many cognate in- 
stances, which mythologists now explain by the same reference. 
15 



226 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

them, going back over the ocean toward the East, accord- 
ing to some accounts. But according to others, he was 
driven away by his stiff-necked and unwilling auditors, 
who had become tired of his advice. They pursued him 
to the bank of a river, and there, thinking that 
the quickest riddance of him was to kill him, they dis- 
charojed their arrows at him. But he cauy-ht the arrows 
in his hand and hurled them back, and dividing the 
waters of the river by his divine power he walked between 
them to the otlier bank, dry-shod, and disappeared from 
their view in the distance. 

Like all the hero-gods, he left behind him the well- 
remembered promise that at some future day he should 
return to them, and that a race of men should come in 
time, to gather them into towns and rule them in peace.^ 
These predictions were carefully noted by the missionaries, 
and regarded as the " unconscious prophecies of heathen- 
dom" of the advent of Christianity ; but to me they bear 

^ "Ilium quoque poUicitum fuisfe, se aliquando has regiones revis- 
urum." Father Nobrega, ubi suprd. For the other particulars I 
have given see Nicolao del Techo, Historia Provincice Paraquarice, 
Lib. VI, cap. iv, " De D. Thomae Apostoli itineribus ;" and P. An- 
tonio Ruiz. Conquista Esi^iritual hccha por los Religiosos de la Com- 
pattia de Jesus en las Prooincias del Paraguay, Parana, Uruguay y 
Tape, fol. 2'J, 30 ^4to., Madrid, 1639). The remarkable identity of 
the words relating to their religious beliefs and observances throughout 
this widespiead group of tribes has been demonstrated and forcibly 
commented on by Alcide D'Orbigny, V Homme Americain, \q\. ii, 
p. 277. The Vicomte de Porto Seguro identifies Zume with the Cemi 
of the Antilles, and this etymology is at any rate not so fanciful as 
most of tliose he gives in his imaginative work, U Origlne Touran- 
ienne des Americaineis TupisVaribcs,]). 62 (Vienna, 1876). 



THE TWO BROTHERS. 227 

too unmistakably the stamp of the light-myth I have been 
following up in so many localities of the New World for 
me to entertain a doubt about their origin and meaning. 

I have not yet exhausted the sources from which I could 
bring evidence of the widespread presence of the elements 
of this mythical creation in America. But probably I 
have said enough to satisfy the reader on this point. At 
any rate it will be sufficient if I close the list with some 
manifest fragments of the myth, picked out from the con- 
fused and generally modern reports we have of the 
religions of the Athabascan race. This stem is one of the 
most widely distributed in Xorth America, extending 
across the whole continent south of the Eskimos, and scat- 
tered toward the warmer latitudes quite into Mexico. It 
is low down in the intellectual scale, its component tribes 
are usually migratory savages, and its dialects are ex- 
tremely synthetic and of difficult phonetics,. regtiiriiig as 
many as sixty-five letters for their proper orthography. 
Xo wonder, therefore, that we have but limited knowledge 
of their mental life. 

Conspicuous in their myths is the tale of the Two 
Brothers. These mysterious beings are upon the earth 
before man appears. Thougli alone, they do not agree, and 
the one attacks and slays the other. Another brother ap- 
pears on the scene, who seems to be the one slain, who has 
come to life, and the two are given wives by the Being 
who was the Creator of things. These two women were 
perfectly beautiful, but invisible to the eyes of mortals. 



228 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

The one was named, The Woman of the Light or Tlie 
Woman of the Morning ; the other was the Woman of 
Darkness or the Woman of Evening. The brothers 
lived together in one tent with these women, who each 
in turn went out to work. When the Woman of Light 
was at work, it was daytime ; when the Woman of Dark- 
ness was at her labors, it was night. 

In the course of time one of the brothers disappeared 
and the other determined to select a wife from one of the two 
women, as it seems he had not yet chosen. He watched 
what the Woman of Darkness did in her absence, and dis- 
covered that she descended into the waters and enjoyed 
the embraces of a monster, while the Woman of Light 
passed her time in feeding white birds. In course of time 
the former brought forth black man-serpents, while the 
Woman of Light was delivered of beautiful boys with 
white skins. The master of the house killed the former 
with his arrows, but preserved the latter, and marrj^ing 
the Woman of Light, became the father of the human 
race, and especially of the Den6 Dindji6, who have pre- 
served the memory of him.^ 

In another myth of this stock, clearly a version of the 

former, this father of the race is represented as a mighty 

bird, called Y<}1, or Yale, or Orclbale, from the root ell, a term 

^ Monographie des Dhi^ DimJJi6, par C. R. P. E. Petitot, pp. 
84-87 (Paris, 1876). Elsewhere the writer says : "Tout d' abord je 
dois rappeler mon observation que ]ire.squo toujours, dans les tradi- 
tions DfenJi, le couple primitif se compose de deux fi-eres.^'' Ibid., 
p. 62. 



ATHABASCAN MYTHS. 229 

they apply to everything supernatural. He took to wife 
the daughter of the Sun (the Woman of Light), and by her 
begat the race of man. He formed the dry land for a 
j)lace for them to live upon, and stocked the rivers with 
salmon, that they might have food. When he enters his 
nest it is day, but when he leaves it it is night; or, accord- 
ing to another myth, he has the two women for wives, the 
one of whom makes the day, the other the night. 

In the begining Yel was white in plumage, but he had 
an enemy, by name Camiook, with whom he had various 
contests, and by whose machinations he was turned black. 
Yel is further represented as the god of the winds and 
storms, and of the thunder and lightning.^ 

Thus we find, even in this extremely low specimen of 
the native race, the same basis for their mythology as in the 
most cultivated nations of Central America. Not only 
this ; it is the same basis upon which is built the major 
part of the sacred stories of all early religions, in both con- 
tinents ; and the excellent Father Petitot, who is so much 
impressed by these resemblances that he founds upon them 
a learned argument to prove that the Dene are of oriental 
extraction,^ would have written more to the purpose had 

^ For the extent and particulars of this myth many of the details of 
which I omit, see Petitot, ubi suprd, pp. 68, 87, note ; Matthew 
Macfie. Travels in Vancouver Island and liritish Coln7nbia,])p- 4S2- 
455 (London, 1865); and J. K. Lord, The Naturalist in Vancouver 
Island and British Columbia (London, 1860). It is referred to by 
Mackenzie and other early writers. 

^ See his " Essai sur I'Originedes Dfenfe-Dindjife," in his Mono- 
graphic, above quoted. 



230 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

his acquaintance with American religions been as extensive 
as it was with those of Asiatic origin. 

There is one point in all these myths which I wish to 
bring out forcibly. That is, the distinction which is every- 
where drawn between the God of Light and the Sun. 
Unless this distinction is fully comprehended, American 
mythology loses most of its meaning. 

The assertion has been so often repeated, even down to 
the latest writers, that the American Indians were nearly 
all sun-worshipers, that I take pains formally to con- 
tradict it. Neither the Sun nor the Spirit of the Sun was 
their chief divinity. 

Of course, the daily history of the appearance and 
disappearance of light is intimately connected with the 
apparent motion of the sun. Hence, in the myths there is 
often a seeming identification of the two, which I have 
been at no pains to avoid. But the identity is superficial 
only ; it entirely disappears in other part^s of the myth, and 
the conceptions, as fundamentally distinct, must be studied 
separately, to reach accurate results. It is an easy, but by 
no means a profound method of treating these religions, to 
dismiss them all by the facile explanations of "animism," 
and " sun and moon worship." 

I have said, and quoted strong authority to confirm the 
opinion, that the native tribes of America have lost ground 
in morals and have retrograded in their religious life since 
the introduction of Christianity. Their own faiths, though 
lower in form, had in them the germs of a religious and 



RELIGION VERSUS MORALITY. 231 

moral evolution, more likely, with proper regulation, to 
lead these people to a higher plane of thought than the 
Aryan doctrines which were forced upon tliem. 

This may seem a daring, even a heterodox assertion, 
but I think that most modern ethnologists will agree that 
it is no more possible for races in all stages of culture and 
of widely different faculties to receive with benefit any 
one religion, than it is for them to thrive under one form 
of government, or to adopt with advantage one uniform 
plan of building houses. The moral and religious life is 
a growth, and the brash wood of ancient date cannot be 
grafted on the green stem. It is well to remember that 
the heathendoms of America were very far from wanting 
living seeds of sound morality and healthy mental educa- 
tion. I shall endeavor to point this out in a few brief 
paragraphs. 

In their origin in the human mind, religion and morality 
have nothing in common. They ore even antagonistic. 
At the root of all religions is the passionate desire for the 
widest possible life, for the most unlimited exercise of all 
the powers. The basis of all morality is self-sacrifice, the 
willingness to give up our wishes to the will of another. 
The criterion of the power of a religion is its ability to 
command this sacrifice ; the criterion of the excellence of a 
religion is the extent to which its commands coincide with 
the good of the race, with the lofty standard of the " cate- 
gorical imperative." 

AVith these axioms well in mind, we can advance with 



232 AMERICAN HERO-MVTHS. 

confidence to examine the claims of a religion. It will 
rise in the scale just in proportion as its behests, were they 
universally adopted, would permanently increase the hap- 
piness of the human race. 

In their origin, as I have said, morality and religion are 
opposites ; but they are opposites which inevitably attract 
and unite. The first lesson of all religions is that we gain 
by giving, that to secure any end we must sacrifice some- 
thing. This, too, is taught by all social intercourse, and, 
therefore, an acute German psychologist has set up the 
formula, " All manners are moral," ^ because they all imply 
a subjection of the personal will of the individual to the 
general will of those who surround him, as expressed in 
usajje and custom. 

Even the religion which demands bloody sacrifices, 
which forces its votaries to futile and abhorrent rites, is 
at least training its adherents in the virtues of obedience 
and renunciation, in endurance and confidence. 

But concerning American religions I need not have 
recourse to such a questionable vindication. They held in 
them far nobler elements, as is proved beyond cavil by the 
words of many of the earliest missionaries themselves. 
Bigoted and bitter haters of the native faiths, as they were, 

1 " Alle Sit'en sind sittlich." Lazarus, Urspruncf der Sittc, S. 6, 
quoted by RoskotF. I hardl\' need mention that our word moraliti/, 
tVora mos, means by etymology, simply what is customary and of current 
usage. Tiie moral man is he who conforms himself to the opinions 
of the majority. This is also at the basis of Robert Browning's defi- 
nition of a people : " A people is but the attempt of many to rise to 
the completer life of one " [A SouVs Tragedy). 



THE MORAL IDEAL. 233 

they discovered in them so much that was good, so much that 
approximated to the purer doctrines that they themselves 
came to teach, that they have left on record many an 
attempt to prove that there must, in some remote and 
unknown epoch, have come Christian teachers to the New 
World, St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew, monks from Ireland, 
or Asiatic disciples, to acquaint the natives with such salu- 
tary doctrines. It is precisely in connection with the 
myths which I have been relating in this volume that these 
theories were put forth, and I have referred to them in 
various passages. 

The facts are as stated, but the credit of developing these 
elevated moral conceptions must not be refused to the red 
race. They arc its own property, the legitimate growth of 
its own religious sense. 

The hero-god, the embodiment of tiie Light of Day, is 
essentially a moral and beneficent creation. Whether his 
name be Michabo, loskeha, or Quetzalcoatl, Itzamna, Vira- 
cocha or Tamu, he is always the giver of laws, the instruc- 
tor in the arts of social life, the founder of commonwealths, 
the patron of agriculture. He casts his influence in favor 
of peace, and against wars and deeds of violence. He 
punishes those who pursue iniquity, and he favors those 
who work for the good of the community. 

In many instances he sets an example of chaste living, 
of strict temperance, of complete subjection of the lusts and 
appetites, I have but to refer to what I have already said 
of the Maya Kukulcan and the Aztec Quetzalcoatl, to show 



234 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

this. Both are particularly noted as characters free from 
the taint of indulijence. 

Thus it occurred that the early monks often express 
surprise that these, whom they chose to call savages and 
heathens, had developed a moral law of undeniable purity. 
" The matters that Bochica taught," says the chronicler 
Piedrahita, " were certainly excellent, inasmuch as these na- 
tives hold as right to do just the same that we do." " The 
priests of these Muyscas," he goes on to say, " lived most 
chastely and with great purity of life, insomuch that even in 
eating, their food was simple and of small quantity, and 
they refrained altogether from women and marriage. Did 
one transgress in this respect, he was dismissed from the 
priesthood."^ 

The prayers addressed to these deities breathe as pure a 
spirit of devotion as many now heard in Christian lands. 
Change the names, and some of the formulas preserved by 
Christobal de Molina and Sahagun would not jar on the 
ears of a couo-reo-ation in one of our own churches. 

Although sanguinary rites were common, they were not 
usual in the worship of these highest divinities, but rather 
as propitiations to the demons of the darkness, or the spirits 
of the terrible phenomena of nature. The mild god of 
light did not demand them. 

To appreciate the effect of all this on the mind of the 

^ " Las cos.as que el Bochica les enseiiabii eraii buenas, sieiulo assi, 
que tenian por raalo lo raismo que nosotros tenemos por tal." 
Piedrahita. Historia General de las Conquistas del Nuevo Reyno de 
Granada, Lib. i, Cap. iii. 



NATIVE LAWS. 235 

race, let it be remembered that these culture-heroes were 
also the creators, the primal and most potent of divin- 
ities, and that usually many temples and a large corps of 
priests were devoted to their worship, at least in the nations 
of higher civilization. These votaries were engaged in 
keeping alive tlie myth, in impressing the sujiposed com- 
mands of the deity on the people, and in imitating him in 
example and precept. Thus they had formed a lofty ideal 
of man, and were publishing this ideal to their fellows. 
Certainly this could not fail of working to the good of the 
nation, and of elevating and purifying its moral concep- 
tions. 

That it did so we have ample evidence in the authentic 
accounts of the ancient society as it existed before the 
Europeans destroyed and corrupted it, and in the collec- 
tions of laws, all distinctly stamped with the seal of reli- 
gion, which have been preserved, as they were in vogue in 
Anahuac, Utatlan, Peru and other localities.^ Any one 
who peruses these will see that the great moral principles, 
the radical doctrines of individual virtue, were clearly 
recognized and deliberately enforced as divine and civil 
precepts in these communities. Moreover, they were gene- 

^ The reader willing to pursue the argument further can find these 
collections of ancient American laws in Sahagun, Historia de Nueva 
Espaita, for Mexico ; in Geronimo Roman, Repuhlica de las Iiidias 
Occi'lentales, for Utatlan and other nations ; for Peru in the Relacioii 
del Origca, Descendencia, Politica, y Gobierno de Ins Incas, por el 
Uceiiciado Fernando de Santillan (published at Madrid. 187'J) ; and 
for the Muyscas, in Piedrahita, Hist. Gen. del Nuevo Reyno de Gra- 
nada, Lib. II, cap. V. 



236 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

rally and cheerfully obeyed, and the people of many of 
these lands were industrious, peaceable, moral, and happy, 
far more so than they have ever been since. 

There was also a manifest progress in the definition of 
the idea of God, that is, of a single infinite intelligence 
as the source and controlling power of phenomena. We 
have it on record that in Peru this was the direct fruit of 
the myth of Yiracocha. It is related that the Inca Yu- 
pangui published to his people that to him had appeared 
Yiracocha, with admonition that he alone was lord of the 
world, and creator of all things ; that he had made the 
heavens, the sun, and man ; and that it was not right 
that these, his works, should receive equal homage with 
himself. Therefore, the Inca decreed that the image of 
Yiracocha should thereafter be assigned supremacy to those 
of all other divinities, and that no tribute nor sacrifice 
should be paid to him, for He was master of all the earth, 
and could take from it as he chose.^ This was evidently a 
direct attempt on the part of an enlightened ruler to lift 
his people from a lower to a higher form of religion, from 
idolatry to theism. The Inca even went so far as to banish 
all images of Yiracocha from his temples, so that this, the 
greatest of gods, should be worshiped as an immaterial 
spirit only. 

A parallel insttmce is presented in Aztec annals. Neza- 
hualcoyotzin, an enlightened ruler of Tezcuco, about 1450, 

^ P. J()sei)h de Acosta, Histovia Natural y Moral dc las Indias, 
Lib. VI, cap. 31 (Barcelona, 1591). 



GROWTH OF THE IDEA OF GOD. 237 

was both a philosopher and a poet, and the songs which he 
left, seventy in number, some of which are still preserved, 
breathe a spirit of emancipation from the idolatrous super- 
stition of his day. He announced that there was one only 
god, who sustained and created all things, and who dwelt 
above the ninth heaven, out' of sight of man. No image 
was fitting for this divinity, nor did he ever appear bodily 
to the eyes of men. But he listened to their j)rayers and 
received their souls.^ 

These traditions have been doubted, for no other reason 
than because it was assumed that such thoughts were above 
the level of the red race. But the proper names and titles, 
unquestionably ancient and genuine, which I have analyzed 
in the preceding pages refute this supposition. 

We may safely affirm that other and stronger instances 
of the kind could be quoted, had the early missionaries 
preserved more extensively the sacred chants and prayers 
of the natives. In the Maya tongue of Yucatan a certain 
number of them have escaped destruction, and although 
they are open to some suspicion of having been colored for 
proselytizing purposes, there is direct evidence from 
natives who were adults at the time of the Conquest that 
some of their priests had predicted the time should come 
when the worship of one only God should prevail. This 
was nothing more than another instance of the monotheis- 
tic idea finding its expression, and its apparition is not more 

^ See Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxocliitl, Historia Chichimeca, cap. 
xi.ix ; and Joseph Joaquin Granados y Galvez, Tardea Americanas, 
p. 90 (Mexico, 1778). 



238 AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

extraordinary in Yucatan or Peru than in ancient E^^ypt 
or Greece. 

The actual religious and moral progress of the natives 
was designedly ignored and belittled by the early missionaries 
and conquerors. Bishop Las Casas directly charges those of 
his day with magnifying the vices of the Indians and the 
cruelties of their worship ; and even such a liberal 
thinker as Roger Williams tells us that he would not be 
present at their ceremonies, " Lest I should have been par- 
taker of Satan's Inventions and Worships."^ This same 
prejudice completely blinded the first visitors to the New 
World, and it was only the extravagant notion that Chris- 
tianity had at some former time been preached here that 
saved us most of the little that we have on record. 

Yet now and then the truth breaks through even this 
dense veil of prejudice. For instance, I have quoted in 
this chapter tiie evidence of the Spanish chroniclers to the 
purity of the teaching attributed to Bochica. The effect of 
such doctrines could not be lost on a people who looked 
upon him at once as an exemplar and a deity. Nor was it. 
Tiie Spaniards have left strong testimony to the pacificand 
virtuous character of that nation, and its freedom from the 
vices so prevalent in lower races.'^ 

Now, as I dismiss from the domain of actual fact all 
these legendary instructors, tlie question remains, whence 

^ Roger Williams, A Key Into the Language of America, p. 152. 

^ See especially the Noticias sohre el N~uevo Reino de Granada, in 
the Colleccion de Documentos ineditos del Archivo de Indias, vol. v, 
p. 5-J9. 



PROCESS OF MORAL GROWTH. 239 

did these secluded tribes obtain the sentiments of justice 
and morality which they loved to attribute to their divine 
founders, and, in a measure, to practice themselves? 

The question is pertinent, and with its answer I may 
fitly close this study in American native religious. 

If the theory that I have advocated is correct, these myths 
had to do at first with merely natural occurrences, the 
advent and departure of the daylight, the winds, the storm 
and the rains. The beneficent and injurious results of 
these phenomena weie attributed to their personifications. 
Especially was the dispersal of darkness by the light 
regarded as the transaction of all most favorable to man. 
The facilities that it gave him were imputed to the goodness 
of the personified Spirit of Light, and by a natural associa- 
tion of ideas, the benevolent emotions and affections devel- 
oped by improving social intercourse were also brought into 
relation to this kindly Being. They came to be regarded 
as his behests, and, in the national mind, he grew into a 
teacher of the friendly relations of man to man, and an ideal 
of those powers which " make for righteousness." Priests 
and chieftains favored the acceptance of these views, because 
they felt their intrinsic wisdom, and hence the moral evo- 
lution of the nation proceeded steadily from its mythology. 
That the results achieved were similar to those taught by 
the best religions of the eastern world should not excite any 
surprise, for the basic principles of ethics are the same 
everywhere and iu all time. 

THE END. 



I 



INDEXES. 



I. INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



AcosTA, J. de, 176, 193, 194, 197, 

236. 
Alegre, F. X., 208. 
Anales del Miiseo Nacional de 

Mejico, 64, 65, 71, 78, 90, etc. 
Ancona, Eligio, 161. 
Angrand, L., 197, 201. 
Annals of Cuauhtitlan, 97, 99, 103. 
Antonio, G., 146. 
ArgoU, Capt, 4-5. 
Avila, Francisco de, 46. 
Bancroft, H. H., 218. 
Baraga, Frederick, 47. 
Basalenque, D. , 208. 
Becerra, 67. 

Beltran, de Santa Rosa, 147. 
Berendt. C. H., 161, 218. 
Bernal Diaz, 140. 
Bertonio, L., 183. 
Betanzos, Juan de, 189, 190. 
Bobadilla, F. de, 160. 
Botiirini, L., 215. 
Bourbourg, Brasseur de, see Bras- 

seur. 
Bra.sseur (de Bourbourg), C, 49, 

161, 215. 
Buschmann, J. C. E., 92. 
Buteux, Father, 50. 
Cabrera, P. F., 215. 
Campanius, Thomas, 53. 
Campbell, John, 191. 
Carriedo, J. B., 219. 



Carrillo, Crescencio, 147, 159. 
Charency, H. de, 78, 215. 
Charlevoix, P6re, 52. 
Chavero, Alfredo, 64, 65, 72, 74, 

79, 102. 
Chaves, Gabriel de, 81, 106. 
Chilan Balam, Books of, 84. 
Clavigero, Francesco S., 70. 
Codex Borgianus, 125. 
Codex Telleriano-Reniensis, 73, 

91, 120, 121, 124, 126. 
Code.x Troano, 155. 
Codex Vaticanus, 73, 91, 125, 128, 

129, 133. 
Cogolludo, D. L. de, 146, 147, 

149, 158. 
Comte, Auguste, 18. 
Cortes, Hernan, 140. 
Cox, Sir George W., 31, 32, 68, 

105. 
Cuoq, J. A., 60, 61. 
Cusic, David, 53. 

Desjardins, E., 191, 197. 
D'Orbigny, A., 183, 226. 
Duran, Diego, 66, 84, 87, 92, 93, 
109, 128. 

Elder, F. X., 150. 

Fischer, Hbinrich', 124. 
Franco, P., 26, n. 
Fuen-Leal, Ramirez de, 73, 78, 
90,. 95, 98, 121. 



241 



242 



INDEX. 



Gabriel de San Buenaventura, 

147. 
Garcia, G., 173, 188. 
Garcia y Garcia, A , 206. 
Gatschet, A. S., 79. 
Gomara, F. L., 91, 156, 174. 196. 
Granados y Galvez, J. J., 237. 
Hale. Horatio, 53. 
Haupt, Paul, 80. 
Hernandez, Francisco, 148, 152, 

158. 
Hernandez, M , 174, 187. 
Herrera, Antonio de, 83, 122, 162, 

172. 179. 189, IW. 
Holguin, D. G., 25, 170,179, 186, 

196. 
Hunibolt, A. v., 212. 
IxTMLxocHiTi,, F. A. de, 88, 89, 

94, 96, 117, 129, 237. 

JoCRnANET, M., 81. 

Keary, Charles F., 51, n. 
Kingsborough, Lord, 66, 69, 83, 
87, etc. 

LaLEMANT, F.*.THElt, 57. 

Landa, D, de, 146, 147, 149, 152, 

166. 
Lang, J. D., 206. 
Las Casas, B. de, 65, 95. 148, 169. 
Lazarus, Prof. , 232. 
Leon, Cieza de, 188, 200. 
Le Plongeou, Dr., 164. 
Lizana. B., 146, 157, 158. 
Lord J K , 229. 
Lubbock, Sir John, 18. 
Macfie, M., 229. 
Mangan, Clarence. 113. 
Markham, C. R., 46, 176, 177, 

191. 
Melgar, J. M., 125. 



Mendieta, Geronimo de, 68, 69, 
91, 92, 96, 117, 126, 140. 

Mendoza, G., 102. 

Molina, Alonso de, 69, 78. 

Molina, C. de, 172, 173, 174, 175, 
192. 

Montejo, Francisco de, 144. 

Motolinia, Padre, 91, 121, 129. 

Motul, Diccionario de, 168, 154, 
156, 166, etc. 

Muller, Max, 23. 

Nieremberg, E. de, 109, 118. 
Nobrega, E., 225, 226. 

Ollanta, drama of, 191, 192. 
Olmos, Andre de, 25. 
Orozco y Berra, Senor, 92. 
Oviedo, G. F. de, 160. 

Pachacuti, J. de, 183, 187, 190. 

Pech, Nakuk, 167. 

Perrot, Nicholas, 41, n. 

Petitot, P. E., 228, 229. 

Piedrahita, L. T., 221, 234, 235. 

Pinientel, F., 206. 

Pinart, A. L., 26, n. 

Pineda, E., 216. 

Pio Perez, J., 154, 164, 165. 

Popol Vuh, the 74, 77, 84, 138, 

152, 111, 217. 
Porto Sisguro, V. de, 226. 
Prescott, W. H., 200. 

Rau, Charles, 155. 
Rea, A. de la, 208. 
Rialle, G. de, 72, 205, 206. 
Roman, H., 149, 235. 
RoskofF, Gus'av, 18. 
Ruiz, A., 226. 

Sagard P^re, 53. 

Sahagun, B. de, 65, 70, 71, 84, 85, 



INDEX. 



243 



89, 96, 106, 109, 116, 120, 126, 

128, 140, 235. 
Sanchez, Jesus, 165. 
Santillan, F. de, 235. 
Schoolcraft, H. R , 47, 50, 52. 
Schultz-Sellack, Dr. C, 72, n., 

81, 131, 155. 
Schwartz, F. L. W., 151, 204. 
Short, J. T., 148, n. 
Simeon, Remi, 81. 
Simon, P., 223. 
Sotomayor, J. de V., 168. 
Squier, E. G., 124, 197, 201. 
Stephens, J. L., 156, 162, 164. 
Strachey, William, 45. 

Tanner, John, 50, 52. 
Taylor, S.,206. 
Techo, N. de, 224, 226. 
Ternaux-Compans, M, 72, n, 
Tezozomoc, A., 83, 119, 134, 135, 
137, 139. 



Tiele, C. P., 34, 59, 60, 67, 127, 

134. 
Tobar, Juan de, 69. 
Toledo, F. de, 175. 
Torquemada, Juan de, 72, 90, 96, 

118, 121, 128, 131, 134. 
Trumbull, J. H., 23, 43. 
Tschudi, J. J. von, 193, 198, 202. 

Uricoechea, E., 151, 222. 

Valera, Blas, 193. 

Vega, Garcillaso, de la, 173, 178, 

188, 191, 193, 200. 
Vega, Nunez de la, 215. 
Veitia, 67, 86, 88, 96, 127. 

Waitz, Th., 206. 
Wiener, C, 196, 197, 201. 
AVilliams, Roger, 43, n., 238. 

Xahila, F. E. a., 85. 

Zegarra, G. p., 187, 191. 



II. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Abaxcay, in Peru, 197. 
Abstract expressions, 25. 
Acan, Maya god of wine, 156. 
Acantun, Maya deities, 156. 
Ages of the world, 78, 
Ah-kiuic, deity of the Mayas, 151. 
Ah-puehah, deity of the Mayas, 

151. 
Air, gods of, 120 ; see Wind. 
Algonkins, their location, 37. 

" their hero-mytli, 38. 

Amun, Egyptian deity, 59. 
Anahuac, 202, 235. 
Animiki, the thunder god, 50. 
Arawack language, 83, n. 
Ares, the Greek, 32. 
Arnava, name of Viracoclia, 189. 
Apotampo, 185. 

Arama, deity of the Moxos, 150. 
An-ival, the Great and Less, 146. 
Ataensic, an Iroquois deity, 54, 
58, 59. 

Atahualpa Inca, 199. 

Atecpanamochco, the 1)ath of 
Quetzalcoatl, 97, n. 

Athabascan myths ami languages, 
227. 

Aticsi, epithet of Viracocha,l 70, n. 

Aurora, myths of, 81 ; see Dawn. 

Ayar, Aucca, 179. 

Avar Cachi, a name of Viracocha, 
178, 180. 

Ayar Manco, 179. 

Ayar Uchu, 179. 

Aymaras, myths of, 183. 
" language of, 169, 

Aztecs, location of, 64, 



Aztecs in Yucatan, 163. 
Aztlan, meaning of, 22, 93, 

Bacabs, the four, 148, 149, 153. 
Baldur, the Norse, 30, 141. 
Ball, the game of, 118, 
Bearded hero-god, 53, 96, 132, 167, 

188, 192. 
Belly, the, in symbolism, 152, 
Bird, symbol of, 52, 155, 223, 228. 
Bisexual deities, 127, n. 
Bochica, hero-god of the Muyscas, 

150, 223, 234. 
Borrowing in myths, 24, 
Butterfly, the, as a symbol of the 

wind, 52. 

Cadmus, the myth of, 32, 
Cakchiquels, myths of, 83, 85. 
Camaxtli, a name of Tezcatlipoca, 

90, 91. 
Canas tribe, 190. 
Cauil, a name of Itzamna, 153, 
Cannook, deity of Dfenfe, 229, 
Carapaco, lake of, 184, 
Carcha, town of, 190. 
Qardinal points, worship of, 29, 

34, 43, 78, 149, 152, 162, 
Caylla, epithet of Viracocha, 173. 
Ce Acatl, One Reed, a name of 

Quetzalcoatl, 65, 90, 118, 
Ce Acatl Inacuil, 139, 
Cemi, deity of Arawacks, 226. 
Chac, deity of the Mayas, 151, 

154. 
Chacamarca, river of, 187. 
Chac Mool, supposed idol, 165. 
Chalchihuitl, 124. 



244 



INDEX. 



245 



Chiilchiuitlicue, Aztec goddess, 

75, 123. 
Chalchihuitzli, Aztec deity, 91. 
Chalchiuhapan, the bath of Quet- 

zalcoatl, 97, n. 
Chasca, Qquichua deity, 170, 185. 
Chem, Egyptian deity, 59. 
Chibchas, see Muyscas. 
Chibilias, a Maya goddess, 148, 

151, n. 
Chichen Itza, 161. 
Chichimecs, the, 76. 
Chickaban, a festival, 166, 
Chicomecoatl, an Aztec deity, 

73. 
Chicomoztoc, 92. 
Chimabnan, 90. 
Chimahnatl, 91, n. 
Chimizapagua, name of Bochica, 

222. 
Chivim, land of, 216, n. 
Chnum, Egyptian deity, 127, n. 
Choctaws, myth of 93 
Cholula, 86, 90. 96, 116, 117. 
Christianity, effects of, 206. 
Cincalco, Cave of, 134, 137. 
Cipactli, in Aztec myth, 74, 126. 
Cipactonal, in Aztec myth. 74. 
Citlatonac, an Aztec deity. 73, 90. 
Citlallicue, an Aztec deity, 73.^ 
Citlaltlachtli, 119. 
Coatl, in Nahuatl, 21, 66. 
Coatecalli, the Aztec Pantheon, 

66. 
Coatlicue, Aztec goddess, 77. 
Cocoms, the, 153, 163. 
Colhuacan, 92. 
CoUa, a Peruvian dcMty, 178. 
Colors, symbolism of, 77, 96, 152, 

209. 



Con, Peruvian deity, 195. 

Concacha, 197. 

Conchuy, 196. 

Condorcoto, the mountain, 46. 

Condoy, hero-god of Mixes, 219. 

Coto, village, 221. 

Coyote, sacred to Tezcatlipoca, 71. 

Cozcapan, fountain of, 115. 

Cozumel, cross of, 155. 

Cross, the, symbol of, 122, 155, 

222. 
Cuchaviva, goddess of Muyscas, 

150, 228. 
Cueravaperi, goddess of Tarascos, 

209. 
Cuernava, cave of, 126. 
Cum-ahau, a Maya deity, 165. 
Curicaberis, deity of Tarascos, 

208. 
Cuzco, founding of, 187. 

" temple of, 193. 

Darkness, powers of, 50, 72, 215. 
Dawn, the mansion of the, 179, 

185. 

" myths of, 31, 32, 42, 48, 

81, 157, 170, 185. 
Dfenfe, myths of, 228. 
Drum, the sacred, 214. 
Dyaus, the Aryan god, 51, 60. 
Dyonisiac worship, the, 32, 106. 

East, sacredness of, 29, 41, 43, 
44, 57, 65, 81, 104, 222. 

Echuac, a Maya deity, 148, 151. 

Egyptian mythology, 33, 34, 69, 
60. 

Europe, carried off by Zeus, 32. 

Fafnir, the dragon, 225. 
Fatal children, the myth of, 68. 
Fire, origin of, 52, 56. 



246 



IKDEX. 



Five eggs, the, 46. 

Flint stone, myths of, 49, 56, 61. 

Flood myth, the, 80. 

Four brothers, the myths of, 30, 

44. 73, 80, 162. 179, 209, 216. 

" sacred numbers, 80,209,215. 

" roads to the underworld, 138. 
Fre)'a, Norse goddess, 151. 
Frog, as symbol of water, 55, 135. 
Gexesiau principle, worship of, 

129. 
Gijigouai, the day makers, 47. 
Glittering heath, the, 225. 
Golden locks of the hero-god, 

31. 
Great Bear, constellation of, 75. 
Guanaeanre, mountain of, 181. 
Guaranis tribe, 224. 
Guaymis, tribe of Darien, 26. 
Guazacoalco, 117. 
Gucumatz, god of Kiches, 210. 
Hachaccuna, 176. 
Harmachis, tlie sun-god, 67, n. 
Heart, symbol of. 217. 
Henotheism in religions, 23. 
Hermaphrodite deities, 127, n. 
Hermes. Greek myth of, 31, 132. 
Hill of Heaven, the, 92, 95. 
Hobnel, deity of the Mayas, 151, 

152. 
Homonomy, 21. 
Huanacauri, 187. 
Huastecs, the, 109, n. 
Huarochiri Indians, myth of, 46. 
Huayna Capac, Inca, 194, 199. 
Huehuetlan, town of. 214. 
Huemac. a name of Quctzalcoatl, 

109. 137. 
Hueytecpatl. an Aztec deity, 80. 
Hue Tlapallan, 89, 135. 



Hueytonantzin, an Aztec deitj^ 

81. 
Huitzilopochtli, Aztec deity, 73 ; 

birth of, 73 ; 77, 81, 106, 113, 

131. 
Huitznahua, Aztec deity, 81. 
Hunchbacks, attendant on Quetz- 

alcoatl, 115, 137. 
Hunhunahpu, a Kiche deity, 77. 
Hunpictok, a Maya deity, 49. 
Hurons, myth of. 517. 
Hurukan, god of Kiches, 211. 

Idea of God, evolution of, 18, 

236. 
Ilia, name of Viracocha, 170, 163. 
Incas, empire of, 169. 
Indra. 51. 
loskeha, the myth of, 53. 

" derivation of, 59. 
Iroquois, their location, 37. 

" hero myth of, 53. 

Itzamal, city of, 147. 
Itzamna, the Maya hero god, 33, 
35. 146. 

" his names, 153, 157. 
Itzas, a Maya tribe, 163, 168. 
Itztlacoliuhqui, Aztec deity, 81. 
Ix-chebel-yax, Maya goddess, 151. 
Ixchel, the rainbow goddess, 148, 

151. 
Ixcuin, an Aztec deity, 80, 81. 
Izona, error for Itzamna, 149. 
Iztac Mixcoatl, 92. 

Jupiter, the planet. 187. 

Kabibonokka, the North, 45. 
Kabil, a name of Itzamna, 158. 
Kabun, the West, 45. 
Kiches, myths of, 74, 77, 83, 85, 
152, 210, 217. 



INDEX. 



247 



Kinich ahau, a name of Itzamna, 
153, 158. 

Kinich ahau haban, 158. 

Kinich kakmo, a name of Itzam- 
na, 158. 

Kukulcan, myth of, 159. 

■' meaning of name, 161. 

Languages, sacred, of priests, 26. 

" American, 21, 23, 25, 

204. 
Laws, native American, 235. 
Lif, the Teutonic, 30. 
Light, its place in mythology, 29. 
Light-god. the, 29, 80, 222. 

" color of, 33. 

Light, woman of, 228. 
Lucifer, worshiped by Mayas, 165. 

Maize, origin of, 52 
Manco Capac, 178, 186. 
Mani, province of, 166. 
Marriage ceremonies, 127. 
Master of life, the, 40. 
Mat, the virgin goddess, 34. 
MaTlapallan, 118. 
Mayapan, destruction of, 144. 
" foundation of, 162. 
Mayas, myths of, 143, sqq. 

" language, 218. 

" ancestors of, 216. 

'' prophecies of, 167, 237. 
Meconetzin, a name of Quetzal- 

coatl, 95. 
Meztitlan, province of, 80, 95, 105. 
Michabo, myth of, 38. 

" derivation of, 41. 

Michoacan, 207. 
Mictlancalco, 115. 
Mirror, the magic, 104, 114. 
MiiTors, of Aztecs, 71. 



Mixcoatl, a name of Tezcatlipoca, 
94. 

Mixes, tribe, 218. 

Monenequi, a name of Tezcatli- 
poca, 70. 

Monotheism in Peru, 175, 179. 

Moon, in Algonkin myths, 47. 
" in Aztec myths, 71. 

Moquequeloa, a name of Tezcat- 
lipoca. 70. 

Morals and religion, 232. 

Morning, hou.se of the, 179. 

Moxos, myths of, 150. 

Moyocoyatzin, a name of Tezcat- 
lipoca, 70. 

Muskrat, in Algonkin mythology, 
39, 42. 

Muyscas, myths of. 150, 220. 
laws of, 235, 238. 

Nahuatl, the language, 64. 

Nanacatltzatzi, an Aztec deity, 80. 

Nanih Wayeh, 93. 

Nanihehocatle, name of Quetzal- 
coatl, 121. 

Narcissus, the myth of, 105. 

Nemterequeteba, name of Bo- 
chica, 223. 

Nezahualcoyotzin, Aztec ruler, 
236. 

Nezaualpilli, a name of Tezcatli- 
poca, 70. 

Nicarasuans, myths of, 160. 

Nonoalco, 99, 101. 

Nuns, houses of, 130. 

Oaxaca, province of, 219. 

Occliuc, town, 215, n. 

Ocelotl, the, 119. 

Odin, the Norse, 51, 142, 212. 

Ojibway dialect, the, 47 ; myth, 
50. 



248 



INDEX. 



Ometochtli, an Aztec deity, 105. 
Orelbale, Athabascan, tloity, 228. 
Osiris, the myth of, 33, 59, 141. 
Otomies, 91, 212. 
Otosis, in myth building, 22. 
Ottawas, an Algonkin tribe, 39. 
Owl, as a symbol of the wind, 52. 
Oxomuco, in Aztec myth, 74, 126. 

Pacahina, the, in Peru, 176. 

Pacari tampu, 179, 180, 185, 186. 

Pachacaraac, 195. 

Pachayachachi, epithet of Vira- 
cocha, 178. 

Palenque, the cross of, 155. 
" building of, 214. 

Pantecatl, Aztec deity, 81. 

Panuco, province of, 109, n. 

Papachtic, a name of Quetzal- 
coatl, 69. 

Pariacaca, a Peruvian deity, 46. 

Paronyms, 21. 

Parturition, symbol of, 128, 223. 

Paths of the gods, 220, 225. 

Pay zume, a hero-god, 224. 

Perseus, 30. 

Personification, 21. 

Peten, lake, 168. 

Phallic emblems, 130, 131, 156. 

Plia'l)us, 30. 

Pinahua, a Peruvian deity, 178. 

Pirhua, 181. 

Pirua, 187. 

Pochotl sonofQuetzalcoatl,129,n. 

Polyonomy in myth building, 23. 

Placers, purpose of, 19. 

■' to Quetzalcoatl, 128. 
'• to Viracocha, 172. 

Proper names in American lan- 
guages, 23. 

Prophecies of Mnyns. ir)7. 



Prosopopeia, 21. 

Pulque, myths concerning, 95,101, 
105, 109, 123. 

Qabauil, god of Kiches, 210. 

Qquichua language, 25, '169. 

Qquonn, Peruvian deity, 197. 

Quateczizque, priests so-called, 
128. 

Quauhtitlan, 114. 

Quptzalcoatl, identified with the 
East, 65 ; meaning of the name, 
32, 66 ; as god, 73 ; contest with 
Tezcatlipoca, 64, 74 ; the hero 
of Tula, 82; worshiped in Cho- 
lula, 90 ; born of a virgin, 90 ; 
his bath, 97; as the planet Venus, 
120 ; as lord of the winds, 120; 
god of thieves, 132 ; represent- 
ations, 132. 

Quetzalpetlatl, 101, 102, n. 

Ra, the Sun-god, 67, n., 191, n. 
Rabbit, the giant, 38. 

" in Algonkin myths, 38. 
" in Aztec myths, 99, 105, 
106. 
Rainbow, as a deity, 149, 151, 223. 
Rains, gods of, 49, 51, 55, 121, 

154, 196, 200. 
Red Land, the, see Tlapallan. 
Religions, classifications of, 18. 
" the essence of, 19. 
" and morals, 232. 
Repose, the place of, 187. 
Reproduction, myths concerning. 
• 106. 

Resurrection, belief in, 201, 221. 
Romulus and Remus, 67. 

Sand, place of, 89. 



INDEX. 



249 



Sarama and Sarameyas, a San- 
scrit m3'th, 31. 

Serpent symbol, the, 50, 130, 131, 
161, 222. 

Serpents,, the king of, 50. 

Seven brothers, the, 91, 186. 
" caves or tribes, the, 92, 94. 

Shawano, the south, 45. 

Shu, Egyptian deity, 60. 

Skunk, sacred to Tezcatlipoca, 71. 

Snailshell symbol, 128. 

Sogamoso, town, 220. 

Soma, the intoxicating, 105. 

Sons of the clouds, 84, 133. 

Sterility, relief from, 128. 

Sua, name of Bochica, 223. 

Sun worship in Peru, 176. 
" in America, 230. 

Sun, the city of, 89. 

Suns, the Aztec, 78. 

Surites, deity of Tarascos, 208. 

Tahuantin Suyii kapac, 180. 

Tampuquiru, 180. 

Tamu, a hero-god, 223. 

Tapirs, 214. 

Tarascos, 91, 207. 

Taripaca, epithet of Viracocha, 

173, 182. 
Tawiscara, in Iroquois myth, 35, 

61. 
Tecpancaltzin, a Toltec king, 94. 
Tecpatl, an Aztee deity, 49. 
Tehotennhiaron, Iroquois deity, 

61. 
Tehunatepec tribes, 218. 
Teimatini, a name of Tezcatlipoca, 

70. 
Telepha?sa,mother of Cadmus,32. 
Telpochtli, a name of Tezctli- 

poca, 70. 



Tentetemic, an Aztec deity, 80. 

Teocolhuacan, 92. 

Teometl, the, 109. 

Texcalapan, 111, n. 

Texcaltlauhco, 111, n. 

Teyocoyani, a name of Tezcatli- 
poca, 70. 

Tezcatlachco, 118. 

Tezcatlipoca, Azt(>c deity, 69 ; 
his names, 70, 90 ; derivation 
of name. 71 ; as twins, 73 ; con- 
tests with Quetzalcoatl, 79", 87, 
97 ; slays Ometochli, 105 ; 
dressed in the tiger skin, l20. 

Tezcatlipoca-Camaxtli, 68, 90, 91. 

Tezcuco, 236. 

Tharonhiawakon, in Iroquois, 60. 

Thieves, patron saint of, 31, 132. 

Thomas, Saint, in America, 65, 
224. 

Thunder, myth of, 49. 

Tiahuanaco, myth concerning, 
184. 

Ticci, name of Viracoclia, 170, 
195. 

Tiger, as a sym1)ol, 119, 211. 

Titicaca lake, 169, 189, 192, 201. 

Titlacauan, a name- of Tezcatli- 
poca, 70, 106. 

Tizapan, the White Land, 135. 

Tlacauepan, 106. 

Tlaloc, Aztec deity, 75, 121, 123. 

Tlalocan, 124. 

Tlamatzincatl, a name of Tezcatli- 
poca, 70. 

Tlanqua-cemilhuique, a name of 
the Toltecs, 87, n. 

Tlapallan, 89, 103, 135. 

TIatlallan, the fire land, 103. 

Tlillan, the dark land, 103. 



250 



INDEX. 



Tlillapa, the murky land, 134. 
Tlilpotonqui, a name of Quetzal- 

coatlj 136. 
Tocapo, epithet of Viracocha, 174, 

178, 181. 
Toh, a Kiche deity, 49. 
Tokay, epithet of Viracocha, 174, 

178. 
Tollan, see Tula. 
Tollan-Cholollan, 86. 
Tollan TIapallan, 57. 
Tollantzinco, 86. 
Toltecs, the, 35,86, 88, 111, 113, 

126. 
Tonalan, 83, 
Tonatlan, 83. 
Tonaca cihuatl, an Aztec deity, 

73. 
Tonaca tecutli, Aztec deity, 73, 90, 

95. 
Topiltzin, a nameof Quetzalcoatl, 

90, 117. 
Toltec, an Aztec deity, 138. 
Totems, origin of, 40. 
Toveyo, the, 109. 
Tree of life, the, 122, 125. 
Tree of the Mirror, 75. 
Tualati, myth of, 79. 
Tukupay, epithet of Viracocha, 

174. 
Tula, the mythical city of, 82, 83. 
Tum, Egyptian deity, 134, n. 
Tume. a hero-god, 232. 
Tunapa, name of Viracocha, 182. 
Tupac Yupanqui, Inca, 194. 
Tupi-Guaranay tribes, 223. 
Twins, in mythology, 30, 45, 54, 

67, 73, 92. 
Two brothers, myths of, 55, 64, 

227. 



Tzatzitepec, the hill of shouting, 

84. 
Tzendals, hero-myth of, 212. 
Tzinteotl, Aztec deity, 73. 
Ttzitzimime, Aztec deities, 78. 
Uac metun ahau, a name of It- 

zamna, 153. 
Ualum chivim, 216. 
Ualum uotan, 213. 
Urcos, temple of, 193. 
Usapu, epithet of Viracocha, 173. 
Utatlan, province of. 211, 235. 
Vase, lord of the, 165. 
Venus, the planet, in myths, 46, 

103, 120. 
Viracocha, myth of, 169. 
" meaning of, 190. 

" statues of, 193. 

" wor.ship of, 236. 

Virgin cow, the, in Egypt, 33. 
Virgin-mother, myth of, 28, 34, 

47, 54, 77, 90, 91. 211. 
Virgins of the sun, in Peru, 34. 
Votan, hero-god of Tzendals, 212. 
Wabawang, the morning star, 47. 
Wabun, or the East, 44, 45. 
Water, in mythology, 58, 72, n. 
" gods of, 59, 72, 75, 124. 

150, 165, 209, 215. 
West, in mythology, 30 47. 
West wind, the, 47, 50. 
Wheel of the months, 153. 

" of the winds, 121. 
White hero-god, the, 29, 59, 66, 

96, 192, 220, 223. 

" land, 92. 

" seritent, 92. 
Winds, gods of, 46, 49, 51, 55, 

120, 164, 199. 
World-stream, the, 97, 112. 



INDEX. 



251 



Xalac, 89. 

Xbalanque, hero-god of Kiches, 

211. 
Xicapoyau, the bath of Quetzal- 

coatl, 97, n. 
Xilotzin, son of Quetzalcoatl, 

129. n. 
Xiu, Maya family of, 165. 
Xnuikane, in Kiche myth, 74. 
Xochitl, the maiden, 94. 
Xochitlycacan, the rose garden, 

95. 
Xochiquetzal, an Aztec deity, 73, 

74. 
Yacacoliphqui, Aztec deity, 131, 
Yacatecutli, Aztec deity, 131. 
Yahualli ehecatl, aname of Quet- 
zalcoatl, 121. 
Yalahau, deity of Tzendals, 215. 
Yale, deity of the Dhnh, 228. 
Yamquesupa, lake of, 184. 
Yaotlnecoc, a name of Tezcatli- 

poca, 70. 
Yaotzin, a name of Tezcatlipoca, 

70. 



Yaqui, derivation of, 85, n. 

Yax-coc-ahmut, a name of It- 
zanina, 153. 

Yel, deity of Dfenfe, 228. 

Ymamana Viracocha, 173, 181. 

Yoalli ehecatl, a name of Tezcat- 
lipoca, 70. 

Yoamaxtli, a name of Tezcatli- 
poca, 90. 

Yoel of the winds, 121. 

Yolcuat Quetzalcoat, 85. 

Yucatan, 96, 143, 144. 

Yunca language, 169. 

Yupanqui, Inca, 236. 

Zaitan, 101. 

Zapala, epithet of Viracocha, 174. 

Zapotecs, tribe, 218, 220. 

Zeus, the Greek, 32, 51. 

Zipacna, a Kiche diety, 77. 

Zitacuarencuaro, a festival, 208. 

Zivena vitzcatl, 85. 

Zoques, tribe, 218, 220. 

Zuhe, name of Bochica, 223. 

Zunie, a hero-god, 223. 

Zuyva, ToUan in, 85. 



c-^ 7 



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